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CHAMP FLEURY 


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Pmavvib PLEURY- BY GEOFROY TORY 
fies INSLATED INTO ENGLISH AND 
fem OLATED BY GEORGE B.IVES 


THE GROLIER CLUB :NEW YORK 


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The Committee on Publications of The Grolier Club certifies ' 


that this copy of George B. Ives’s translation of Geofroy Tory’s 
CHAMP FLEURY 


is one of an edition consisting of 390 copies 
on antique wove rag paper and 7 copies 
on larger hand-made paper. 


December, 1927. 


+ 


FLEURY. 


Wherein is contained the Art & Sci- 
ence of the proper & true Proportions 
of Attic Letters, otherwise called An- 
tique Letters, and in common speech 
Roman Letters, proportioned accord- 
ing to the human Body and Face. 


This Book is licensed for ten years by 
the King, ourSire, & is for sale in Paris 
on the Petit Pont at the Sign of the 
Pot Cassé by Maistre Geofroy Tory 
of Bourges, Bookseller & Author of 
said Book, and by Giles Gourmont, 
also a Bookseller,on RueSainct Jaques 
at the Sign of che Trois Coronnes. 


PÉCENS EPP O RETTEN Ov EARS. 


This whole work is divided into Three Books. 


In thé First Book is contained the exhortation to establish and order 
the French tongue by fixed rules for speaking elegantly in good and 


sound French diction. 


In the Second the invention of the Attic Letters is treated,and their 
proportions are compared to those of the natural body and face of the 
perfect man. With many fine conceits & moral lessons concerning the 
said Attic Letters. 


In the Third and last Book are drawn in their due proportions all the 
said Attic Letters in their alphabetical order, of their due height and 
breadth, each by itself, with instruction as to their right fashioning & 
correct pronunciation, both Latin and French, as well in the ancient as 
in the modern manner. - 


In two sheets at the end are added thirteen different fashions of Let- 
ters. These are, namely: Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Letters; French 
Letters, and these in four fashions, which are Cadeaulx, Forme, Bas- 
tarde, & Tourneure. Then follow the Persian, Arabic, African, Turk- 
ish, and Tartar Letters, all five of these in the same Alphabet. Then 
come the Chaldaic, the Goffes, which are otherwise called Imperial & 
Bullatic, the Fantastic Letters, the Utopian, or, as one may say, Volun- 
tary. And, lastly, the Floriated Letters (Floryes). With instruction as 
tothe manner of making ciphers of letters for gold rings, for tapestries, 
windows, paintings, and other things as need may arise. 


Here follows the duplicate of the privilege given by our Lord the King 
to Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, Bookseller and Author of this 
present Book, living in Paris, for Histories, Vignettes, Friezes, Borders, 
Headings, and Interlacements, and other Figures used in printing this 
Book, and Books of Hours for divers uses and of divers sizes. And the 
said Privilege is for the time and period of ten years beginning on the 


day of the date of the printing of the said Book and Hours. 


1 


PRIVILEGE OF OUR LORD’ THE KING. 


SRancois, by the grace of God, King of France, to the Pro- 
4&|\ vost of Paris, Bailiff of Rouen, Seneschal of Lyons, and to 
all other Officers of Justice or to their Lieutenants, and to 
each of them as it shall appertain to him, greeting: 

Our dear and well-loved Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, book- 
seller, living at Paris, has caused it to be told and made known tous that, 
for the showing forth, enrichment, and embellishment for all time 
of the Latin and French tongues, he has in these last years made and 
composed a book in French prose entitled ‘The Art and Science of 
the proper and true Proportions of the Attic Letters otherwise called 
Antique Letters, and in common speech Roman Letters, proportioned 
according to the human body & face, which book he has caused to be 
shown and presented to us, praying and beseeching us, to this end, to 
give & grant to him Privilege, permission, & licence to print, or to have 
printed, the said book; together with certain Vignettes in the antique 
and in the modern style; also Friezes, Borders, Headings & Interlace- 
ments, for the printing of Hours, for such uses & of such sizes as shall 
seem good to him, during the period and term of ten years, beginning 
on the day of the printing of the said Book and Hours; with proroga- 
tion for a like time for divers Histories and Vignettes in the antique 
style by him heretofore printed; and that during the said period it shall 
not be lawful or allowable for any booksellers and printers of our King- 
doms, Provinces and Lordships, other than the said Tory, or those to 
whom he shall for this purpose entrust these books & other things de- 
scribed herein, to print them or to have them printed in any form. We 
give you to know that, having considered the foregoing, being favour- 
ably inclined to the petition and prayer of the said Maistre Geofroy 
Tory, and having regard and consideration to the trouble, labour, ex- 
penses, and outlay which he has been required to bear & sustain, as well 
in the composition of said Book as in the engraving of the said Histo- 
ries, Vignettes, Friezes, Borders, Headings, and Interlacements for the 
printing of Hours, as has been said, for divers uses and of divers sizes, 
we have given and granted and by especial favour do by these presents 
give and grant to him, for these and other reasons us thereto moving, 
leave, licence, permission, and Privilege to print, or to have printed by 


his servants, agents and clerks, the said Book and Hours, of such sizes 
iil 


and for such uses*as shall seem good to him, during the said term and 
period of ten years, beginning on the said day and date of the printing 
thereof ; together with the prorogation aforesaid, for a like term often. 
years, for the said Historiest and Vignettes by him heretofore printed; 
enjoining & ordering you respectively by these presents that you suffer 
and permit the said Maistre Geofroy Tory this our present gift & grant, 
licence, permission, and Privilege, to enjoy and make use of fully and 
peaceably, neither offering nor causing to be offered any hindrance to 
him therein; and, furthermore, that you suffer not nor permit, in any 
manner whatsoever, any other Booksellers or Printers in our said King- 
dom, Provinces and Lordships to print or to have printed, during the 
said period, the said Book and Hours as aforesaid; under pain of a hun- 
dred silver Marks, to be paid to us, & confiscation of the said Book and 
Hours wherewith they shall have set at naught our will. For such is 
our pleasure. Given at Chenonceaux, the fifth day of September, in the 
year of grace One Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty-Six,and of our 
reign the Twelfth. 


Thus signed: By the King, Breton: & sealed with yellow wax 
on a single tag. And in confirmation signed: 
Lormier: sealed with green wax 


ona double tag.t 


* The Hours, for which much of Tory's finest work was created, varied according to the place where 
they were to be used; Horae ad usum Sarum, etc. 
| That is, historical pittures. ‘History, a pictorial representation of an event or series of events.” 
— NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. See, for example, pages 8,74, and 75, infra. 
t Queue: ‘Tag, the trip of parchment bearing the pendent seal of a deed.’ —N.E.D. 

iv 


Geofroy Tory of Bourges offers humble greeting to 


all true and devoted Lovers of well-formed Letters. 


1Oets, Orators, and others learned in Letters and Sciences,* 
when they have made and put together some product of 
their studious diligence and toil, are wont to present it to 
some great lord of the Court or the Church, lifting him up 
by letters and laudation to the knowledge of other men; and this to 
flatter him and to the end that they may be always so welcome about 
him, that he seems to be bound & obliged to give them some great gift, 
some benefice, or some office, as reward for the labours and vigils they 
have put to the making & composition of their said works & offerings. 
I could easily do the like with this little book; but, considering that, if 
I should present it to one rather than to another, some feeling of en- 
vious despite might be caused, I have thought that it would be well of 
me to make of it a present to you all, O devoted Lovers of well-made 
letters, without placing the great before the lowly, unless it be in so far 
as he loves letters more, and is more at home in virtuous things. Thus 
the Prelates & great Lords, who are eminent, all, in goodly virtues, will 
have their part therein, whilst you will not lose yours. 

Tam vexed that some have sought to persuade me from setting forth 
what I have written for you in this work of ours, & that they have tried 
to make of me an ungrateful man in wishing me not to teach a very 
beautiful and goodly thing. They remind me of those who, when they 
have some unknown sheet or book, do not make it known to their bro- 
ther, or their father. Methinks such men are so wicked and so covetous 
that, if all the flame & fire in the world were extinct save only a single 
candle which they had lighted, and that none could have fire but from 
their single candle, they would not consent that their fond mother 
should light one thereat, to have fire for warming and nourishing their 
little brother. They are of the nature of a beast which Pliny and So- 
linus affirm to be so vicious, that, knowing that its urine stiffens and 
congeals into a precious stone, which is called in Greek Auyxoupiov,¢ and 
which is like the amber stone that sets fire to straws, it will not permit 
it to come into the hands and use of man, so that it covers it and hides 
it in the earth as secretly as it can. Thus did the noble artificer of the 
windows of Sainte Chapelle at Bourges, which the Duc de Berry named 

V 


* That is, various branches 
of knowledge. ‘Sciences’ is 
used in this sense throughout 


the book. 


+ Latin, lyncurium, ‘a hard 
transparent gem... formed 
of lynxes’ urine; probably the 
hyacinth or tourmaline.’ See 
Pliny, Nat. Hist.virx, 38, 57; 
Solinus (Caius Julius), 11, 
38. 


1. These numerical references 
aretolongernotes by the trans- 
lator, placed at the end of this 
volume. 


Jean had made. This artificer was so ungrateful & greedy of his skill that 
he would never impart it to any man, not even to his son, so it is said. 
The windows he made with such art that the Sun, however brightly he 
shines, can in no wise pierce them with his rays; which is a very fine 
thing, and without parallel. Had he but been willing to teach this art, 
a thousand other men since him would have brought forth many fair 
and goodly works, which have not been made, nor ever will be. Would 
God that the inventor of gunpowder had done the like, and had died 
without hands and with closed mouth: hundreds of thousands of men 
might have lived longer, who have been most cruelly slain. Such are 
the execrable kinds of knowledge that should not be taught; but the 
goodly and excellent ones should be proclaimed, to the end that every 
man may occupy himself therein and strive to do good work. Albert 
Diirer, the noble German painter, is greatly to be praised, who has so 
well set forth his art of painting by drawing the figures of Geometry, 
Fortifications, and the proportions of the human body. He is worthy to 
be held in immortal memory.’ 

Let us not then be unmindful to teach & say freely what may be of 
profit, and let us with good heart give pleasure to all who live, even as 
we would that they should do to us. A pearl buried in dung is lost and 
useless; but when it is set in gold, be it alone or with other precious 
stones, it is much more fitly disposed and to the liking of the men who 
have it before their eyes. And so, being unwilling that our Attic Let- 
ters, in their true proportion, should be altogether unknown, I have 
drawn them all for you by number and measure, to the end that you 
may use them at your good pleasure, and may make of them as many 
large and as many small as shall seem well and good to you, and this 
whilst keeping always the number of points and curves required for 
each of them. 

Here I would fain beg & admonish you that when you shall wish to 
use Attic Letters, or Greek, or others, in mottoes, in sentences, or other- 
wise, you place and write them in Tablets, or in open spaces, to the end 
that each letter be seen and stand in a straight line, in full face, and in 

ood order. I see some who place them in Scrolls, wherein very often a 
syllable finds itself divided into parts more than an ell asunder, which 
is contrary to the rules of Grammar. Item, some letters lie crosswise, as 
it were, and others have the feet askew, which is contrary to the design 


of Nature. The nature of Letters, which are made on the pattern of 
vi 


the human body, is to stand in their requisite & proper aspect, upright, 
and intact. But if somebody should reply to me that ona piece of gold, 
silver, copper, or some other substance, there are letters whereof some, 
with respect to others, are found to have their feet out of line, or askew, 
I would answer courteously that it is well done, & that one can turn be- 
tween his fingers the said piece of gold, or other piece, so as to see each 
letter straightly and in full face. But in pictures, in windows, in tapes- 
tries, on walls, & in many other places, one cannot turn the letters save 
by turning the whole surface whereon they are placed, for which reason 
it is fitting that they be planted closely there and written on a straight 
line, one after another. These would fain excuse themselves & say that 
Scrolls serve to fill the blank spaces. Saving their honour, they serve 
only haste, & the cause of this misuse is the bands of chaplets & crowns 
of leaves, branches, and flowers, which the ancients brought into their 
feasts to flit about here and there and to give charm to the said feasts. 
He who would write in Scrolls should not write lengthwise, but across; 
for should one desire to write but three or four verses lengthwise, the 
scrolls must needs be longer than from here to the Isles of Molucca, & 
especially if he would write in large letters. The fashion of writing in 
scrolls is a great abuse in many ways, & chiefly in this, that some write 
one and the same word or syllable half within the scroll and the other 
half on top of it. 

It is great folly to try to do something without seeking out the rea- 
son. The device of writing in scrolls comes from far distant and almost 
unknown antiquity, but none the less I will tell it to you. It came from 
the ancient Lacedæmonians, who in time of war had two truncheons 
made, of exactly the same length & thickness, & gave one to the Prince 
who was going to war, and kept the other until they should have occa- 
sion to write to him in secret. And when they wrote to him they took a 
strip of parchment, or leather, or some similar thing, long and narrow 
like a girdle, & wrapped it edge to edge around the length of the trun- 
cheon which they had kept; then wrote upon their parchment along 
and around their said truncheon in such wise that the greater part of 
the letters were a half or a third or very little way over either edge and 
place of jointure of their said parchment; then they unrolled it & sent it 
all unrolled to their said Prince, who, as soon as he received it, placed it 
around his truncheon,and thereupon, because the two truncheonswere 


of the same size, all the letters fitted together exactly, as when they were 
vii 


written. They did this to the end that if, perchance, the enemy should 
surprise their couriers or messengers, they could not piece together the 
letters written thus across the parchment. And remembering this, the 
ancient painters placed scrolls in the hands of princes, then in the hands 
of the Prophets, and of the Sibyls likewise, & thereafter in many other 
waysand fashions, until at the end the thing was misused ina thousand 
places, & without reason. That it ts true that the aforesaid ancient Lac- 
edæmonians wrote in this wise, as is said above, read the seventeenth 
book & ninth chapter of the Notes Artica of Aulus Gellius. Read, too, 
the first Proverb of the second Hundred—that is to say, Centon—which 
Centon is also in the second Chiliad—that is to say, Thousand—of the 
Proverbs of Erasmus, where it is written, Triffis Scytale | baneful secret 
dispatch] and you will find there set out at length all that I have said.* 

Let us then putaside these scrolls and write on good open tablets and 
other like things, to the end that your letters may be seen face to face. 

And note that the space between the lines should be always as wide as 
the letter I is high. The space between the letters must be always of the 
width either of an IJ, oran F, or an S, or an M, or even wider, according 
to the place to be filled & the sentence to be written. In brief, the Attic 
Letter is so noble that it would fain be at full liberty,as you will be able 
to see in this present work, which I have called ‘Champ Fleury’ for the 
grace and smoothness of the name, and which I have entitled ‘The Art 
& Science of the proper & true Proportions of the Attic Letters, which 
are otherwise called Antique Letters, and in common speech Roman 
Letters.’ 

Take it, therefore, in good part, an it please you, O devoted & worthy 
lovers of well-made letters, and believe that what I have done has been 
done with zeal and hearty good-will. Praying our Lord JESUS to give 
to you all increase in well-made letters and excellent virtues, with all 


sound health of body and soul. 


At Paris this XX VIII day of April 
on the Petit Pont at the 
sign of the Pot 


Cassé. 


viii 


TABLE 


Names of the Authors and worthy persons quoted and mentioned in 
this Work, some of which are written in Latin and some in French, 
according as the pronunciation is more pleasant to the ear. 


A 
Agrestius 
Alain Chartier 
Albert Durer 
Alde 
Alcman 
Alexandre de ville Dieu 
Albinus 
Andreas Cratandrus 
Antonius Orobius 
Appius Claudius 
Arnol Grabans 
Architrenius 
Arius 
Asconius Pedianus 
Astyages 
Aulus Gellius 
Aulus Albinus | 
Aulus Antonius Orobius 
Auance 
- Ausone 
Auguste Cesar 
Augustin Justinian 

B 
Baptiste Mantuan 
Baptiste le piteyable 
Baptiste Albert 
Beda le venerable 
Beroal 
Boccace 
Bramant 
Bude 

Fa 

Cadmus 


Carmentis 

Caper Grammaticus 
M. Cato 

Martianus Capella 
Cælius Rhodiginus 
Catulle Jules Cesar 
S. Cipryan 
Chastelain 
Chrestien de Troyes 
Charlemaigne 
Charles Bouille 
Chrysoloras 

Cicero 

Cimenez de Cineros 
Cornele Tacite 
Codrus Vrceus 
Constantin Lascaris 
Cretin 


Q. Curse 
D 


Dantes 

Ma Dame Dentragues 
Dioscorides 

Diomedes Gram [maticus ] 
Didymus 

Donatus 

Donatel 


E 
Ennius 
Erasme 
Estiene de la Roche, otherwise 
called de ville Franche 
Euclides 


TABLE 


F 

Festus 

Frere Rene Masse, Chronicler to 
the King 

Frere Lucas Paciol 

Frere Francois Cimenez de Cin- 
eros 

Francesco Petrarcha 

Fulgentius Placiades 


G 
Gaguin 
Galeotus Martius Narniensis 
George Chastellain 
Gellius 
‘Grecismus’ 


I. Groslier 


H 
Habraham 
Hayeneufue 
Hercules 
Hesiode 
Hieronyme Auance 
S. Hierosme 
Hieremias 
Higine 
Homere 
Horace 


Hugon de Mery 


I 
Jaques Faber 
Jehan Groslier 
Jehan Lineuelois 
Iehan Lemaire 
Jehan Pontan us] 
Jehan Boccace 
Jehan Perreal, otherwise called 


Jehan de Paris 


x 


Jehan Baptiste le piteyable 
Io, Grammaticus 


Josephus 


_ Juvenal 


Iules Cesar 

L 
Lactance 
Laurent Valle 
Lascaris 
Lapocalipse 
Leon Baptiste Albert 
Le Maire 


Leonard Vince 


‘Le Liure du ieu des Eschecqts’ 
[The Book of the Game of 


Chess] 
Lineuelois 
Lucian 
F. Lucas Paciol 
‘Lunettes des Princes 
Lucretius 

M 

Masse 
Ma Dame Dentragues 
Marcellus Viroilius 
Mecrobe 
Marcus Cato 
Maurus 
Maistre Simon du Mans 
Martianus Capella 
Martial 
Martius Narniensis 
Maistre Pierre Patelin 
S. Mathieu 
Mela 
Mesieres 
Michel Lempereur 
Michel Lange 


Morus Langlois 
Moyse 

N 
Narniensis 
Nesson 
Nicostrata 

O 
Orace 
Orobius 
Orus Apollo 
Oscus & Voscus 
Ovide 

P 
Paisant de Mesieres 
Paciol 
Patelin 
Petrarcha 
Persius 
Phocas 
Philippes Beroal 
Pierre de Sainct Cloct 
Pittacus 
Plaute 
Platon 
Placiades 
Pline 
Plutarche 
Pompone Mela 
Pontan[us | 
Polyphile 
Probus Gram [ maticus ] 
Prodicus 


Pythagoras 


TABLE 


Quintilian 
Quinte Curse 


Raoul 


Raphael Durbin [da Urbino] 
F. Rene Masse, Chronicler to 


the King 

Reuclin 
Rhodiginus 

S 
Sainct Cipryan 
Sainct Mathieu 
Sainct Herosme 
Servius Maurus 
Simon Grabans 
Simon Hayeneufue 
Sigismunde Fante 
Soline 

Ts 
Terentian 
Terence 
Theocrite 
Theodose Gaza 

V 
Varro 
Vitruve 
Voscus & Oscus 
Vrban 

x 
Xenophon 

Z 
Zacharias Prophete 


* Tory's arrangement, though 
not alphabetical inthe modern 


sense, has been followed exad- 


ly, the French word or phrase 


being added when the transla- 


tion belongs under a different 
letter. The pagination of the 
present edition is substituted 
for the folios of the original. 


A 


DASRE 


List of Latin and French Words mentioned in this Work, according 
to the numbers of the Folios, and in Alphabetical order.* 


(Aage) Life everlasting, in the 
writinos of the Egyptians 183 


Aisa triangular letter 


26 


Aasvowel,syllable & word 79 


A as interjection 79 
A is used to indicate the be- 
ginning 78 
A inverted 84 
A with a compass 85 
AMO 80 
Ab aure rejuncti 4 
Abbreviations, French 124 
Acrisius 74. 
Aeneas 67 
Aevum (Aage) 183 
African Letters 179, 180 
Aha 80, 111 
Ah & Vah 110 
Ajax 25 
Alpha 78 
(Alemans) Germans 101,103 
111,146 
(Amoureux) Lovers 103 
Angelus 17 
Apostrophe 138 
(Apices) Points 162, 163 
Argus 19, 20 
Arius, his inordinate use of 
the aspirate 110, 111 
Arabic Letters 179,180 
Attached by the ear 6 
Aurenges 52 
Augeratus 97 


X11 


B 
Bacchus 74 
Basiliscus serpens 183 
Basilisk, immortal serpent 184 
(Belle fable) A fine fable 19,64 
(Beau segret) À fine riddle 


in Virgil 39 
Beatrice ro iy 
(Beotes) Boeotians 139 
Bourges 103, 135, 155 
Burgundians 120 
(Breve) Short sentence 133 
Bretons 135, 142 
Bruges 115 
C | 

Cisa Latin Letter OI 
Citons 103 


(Caqueteurs) Great talkers 
have their tongues pierced 7 


(Canetieres) Duck ponds in 


Rome reli 
Carolus 117 
Cappadocians 117 
Cappa 117 
Cadeaulx (Letters) 174,175 
Ceres 74, 
Ce, as suffix O1 
Gi 143 
Charon 6 
Charlemagne 14 
Chartres | 14 
Cheopine and Pinte are de- 

rived from the Greek 17 


Chain of Gold in Homer 64 


TABLE 


(Chancon ancienne) Old 

ballad 90 
CHRISTVS 110 
Chi 118 
Chut LST] 141 
Cilicians 117 
Cygnus 17 
(Corps) Units 30 


(Corps) Units of the letter 30 
Comparison of ManwithanI 47 
Compass and Rule 85 
Coliseum, the, in Rome 126 
Confirmation of the tradition 
herein set forth concerning 


the Attic letters 155 
Correspondence of Greek and — 

Latin letters 168 
Conclusion of this Book, with 

its fine reasoning 159 
Cretans 117 
Cross, the 77 

D 

D is a purely Latin letter 94 
Dame Memory 39 
Danze 74 
Dames of Lyons 84,96 
Dames of Paris 84, 138 
Dactyl 112 
Dagues 164 
(Degres) Stairs and stairways 

of the Ancients 49, 50 
Decorum 57 
(Decem Nestores) Ten Nes- 

tors 65 
Delta 94 
Deltolon 94 
(Decies centum) Ten hun- 

dred 115 


Diverse opinions concerning 
the invention of letters 13,14 
Difference in meaning between 
Minerva and Pallas 46 
Division of the human face 52,53 


(Dix hommes) Ten men like 


Nestor 65 
(Dix corps) Ten units in each 

letter 65 

_ Diphthong AE 80 


(Dittes) Say ‘Io’todenote joy 90 
Digamma, Æolian 99, 100,146 
Definition of the Point 157,158 
Division of the equilateral 


Square 81 
Divers names of letters used 

in Printing a iy) 
Double letters 62 
Dreux 14 
(Droicte) Straight line,the 30 
Druids 14 
Aouidat 14 

E 

(Ecossois) Scotch,the 06,07 
Egyptians, the 105 
(Elle) the letter L is reversed 

[rebus | 120 
Empsitem 12 
Enigma, a strange and note- 

worthy 44, 45 
Eneas 67 
Ephesians, the 


77 
Epitaph in Picard dialect 93 
Epitaph, an ancient, found at 
Lyons 100 
(Escripture antique) Ancient 
writing QI 
X111 


TABLE 


(Escriptures) Writing by pic- 


tures was invented by the 


Egyptians 105 
Ex, in compound words 148 
F 
F for other consonants 100,130 
F, Æolian digamma 130, 146 
Fable 19, 20, 64 
Flemings, the 113 
Flageolet of Virgil 40-42 
Fountain in Athens with nine 
pipes 37 
Forest, people of 120 
Fruges 115 
G 
G for C 103 
G large and À small 103 
Gascons 89, 141 
Gamma placed above another 
Gamma makes an F 99 
Geryon 6 
Gladiolus 24 
Gold, shower of 74. 
Goffes [ Letters] 179, 182 
Grammarians of the village 111 
Greeks 126, 137 
H 
Hercules, the Gallic 4-8 
Hercules in youth 150, 151 
Hemitonium 122 
Homonem Il 
(Huit) the figure 8 136 
Hyacinthus 24,25 
Hyacinthiol 24,75 
I 


Iand O are the models for all 


the other Attic Letters 22,113 
xiv 


I is the ninth letter of the 


Alphabet 42 
Tand Man compared with 
each other 47 
Japetus 6 
(Ieunes amoureux) Young 
lovers 105 
IESVS CHRIST MS 
Ignorance 69,70 
Illatabilis linea 29 
(Imper) Oddnumber 26, 40, 45 
78, 125 
Interjections 99 
Ionia 19 
Tota 113 
IQ 20, 22 
lo pæan 23 
Io triumphe 23 
Io, used as a proverb 23 
Italians, the 132, 142 
Tuno 19, 22 
Jupiter 74 
Toto 24 
a 3 
Karolus 117 
i 
L turned upside down is a 
Gamma 100 
(Langue percee) pierced 
tongue 6 
(La Langue) the Tongue is 
connected with the ears 7 
Language, the French, is very 
pleasing 
(Lavarice) Avarice of the 
Romans 18 


(Lair) Air of Paris is clear, 
soft, and agreeable 21 


TABLE 


(Laspiration) the Aspirate 26,111 
Line, the 30 
(Largeur) Breadth of each 

Attic Letter 32,33 
(Largeur) Breadthofthel 47,53 
(La Teste) the Human head 


has seven channels of vital 


spirit 54 
Language of the common 

people in Italy 174 
Letter L, has three sounds in 

pronunciation 118, 119 
Laconians 126, 133 
Laconismus 133 
(Lapocalypse) the Apoca- 

lypse 127 
Largesse 104, 141 
La Sapience, in Rome 142 
(La goute dor) the Shower of 

Gold 74 
Lambda 143 


(La Saincte Escripture) the 
Holy Scripture is written 


in three languages 162 
~ (Les premiers Hommes) the 
First Men 13 
Letters, Hebrew 14, 161-167 
Letters, the Attic, & why they 
aresocalled | 19 


Letters, Attic, all made from 
three geometrical figures 26 
Letters, the Attic, are twenty- 
three in number 32, 68 
Letters, the Attic, are made ac- 
cording to the proportions 
of the human body 43 
Letters, the Attic, should have 
a Savour of Architecture 49 


Letters for Ground Plans 


5152 

Letters, tractable 61 

Letters, double 62 
Letters, Hebrew, are used as 

figures in reckoning 167 


Letters of the Alphabet in 

Greek are used as figures 78 

79, 115 

Letters for printers [types] 85 
Letters used for abbrevia- 

tions 123 
Letters, Greek, are all written 

between two equidistant 


lines | 132 
Letter, Canine 134 
Letter, Pythagorean 151 
Latin Letters 171-173 
Letters, French 174 
Lettre de Forme 174, 176 
Lettre Bastarde 174,177 
Lettre de Tourneure 174,178 


Letters, Persian, Arabian, 


African, Turkish, and 
Tartar 179, 180 
Letters, Chaldaic 179, 181 


Letters, Goffe, Imperial, and 


Bullatic 179, 182 
Letters, Fantastic 183-185 
Letters, Utopian and Volun- 

tary 184, 186 
Letters, Floriated 184, 187 


Letters are so noble & divine 
that they must not be de- 
faced in any way 189 
(Levangile) the Gospel forthe 
feast of St. Denis is sung in 
Greek in the church of St. 
Denis in France 18 
XV 


TABLE 


Le point 29 

(Les trois) the three Graces 
handmaids of Venus 55 

(Les) the S wrongly pro- 
nounced 63 


(Les) those who know not the 
dimensions of Attic Letters 66 


(Le Monde) the World is in 


the shape of a Cross 77 
(Le Signe) the sign of the 
Cross 81 


(Le Picard) the Picard pro- 
nounces the Cvery well 92 


(Le Soleil) the Sun in the con- 


stellation Libra 120 
(Linguae) the Tongue con- 
nected with the ears 7 
(Linsatiable) insatiable avarice 
of the Romans 18 
Lisflambe 24, 25,75 
Linea illatabilis 29 
Line, straight 30 
Line, perpendicular 30 
Line, curved, perfect, and im- 
perfect 30, 31 
Line, triangular 31 
Liquids 61 
(Lieux) Places on which to set 
the fixed point of the Com- 
pass to draw Attic Letters 87 
Lyonnese 143 
(Lieu) Position for points of 
punctuation 
Litera longua 121 
Lympha 115 


(Lhomme)the Man of Vulcan 2 
(Lhomme) Man divided into 


ten parts 44 


Xvi 


(Lhomme) Man is six times 

the length of his foot 44 
(Lhomme) Man tn Contem- 

plation has his Head raised 

& hisfeeton the Earth 46,47 
(Lhomme) Man, his parts in- 

dicated by Letters 56,57 
(Lhomme) the perfect man 56 
(Lhomme) Mana little world 77 
(Louanges) Praise of Paris 15,16 


Lorrainers 135 
M 

M has three sounds IR RNEE 3 
M with N 143 
Marquetry 58 
(Manseaulx) people of Le 

Mans 135 
Mapich 


Method of forming syllables 
in Hebrew with lettersand 
points 166 
Method of making ciphers in 


gold rings or otherwise 189 


Mercury 2002 
Memory is always easily set in 
. motion 39 
Memory and Moderation are 

akin 39 
Mention of the Dames of 

Lyons 84,96 
Mention of the Dames of 

Paris 84, 138 


Mention of Printing Types 85 
Mention of the Gascons 84, 
Mention of the Germans 89,101 
103, 110, 146 

Mention of the Picards 92,96 
103, III, 143 


TABLE 


Mention of the ancient Latins 

94, 95,97; 100, 102, 14.6 
Mention of the English 96 
Mention of the Normans 96, 123 
Mentionof the Lorrainers 96, 135 


Mention of the Scots 96 
Mention of Bourges 103, 135, 155 
Mention of Jesters 103 
Mention of Rebuses 104 
Mention of young lovers 103 
Mention of the Device and 
Mark of this Book 105,106 


Mention of the Flemings 113 
Mention of the Cappadocians, 


Cretans, and Cilicians 117 
Mention of the Burgundians 

and people of Forest 120 
Mention of the Greeks 137 
Mention of the French 

language 127,128, 137, 174, 
Mention of the Laconians 13 
Mention of Paris 135 
Mention of the people of 

Le Mans 135 

Mention of the Bretons 135,142 


Mention of the Bæotians 139 

Mention of the Toulousans & 
Gascons 141 

Mention of the Italians 83,84, 


92, 93, 132, 142, 147,148 - 


Mention of the Lyonnese 143 


Minerva 2, 46 
(Mille) Thousand 116 
Momus 2 
Moses 14, 179 
(Moralite) Allegory of the 

fable of Io DiN22 


(Moralite) Allegory of the 
fable of Hyacinthus 
(Moralite) Allegory of the 
perpendicular and hori- 
zontal lines 37, 38 
(Moralite) Allegorical fig- 
ure of Virgil’s flageolet 
containsthe [andtheO 41-43 
(Moralite) Allegory of the 
Broken Jar (Pot Cassé) 105, 106 


24,25 


(Montees) Stairways and 

stairs of theancients 40,50 
Mosaic 58 
Moly 74 
Movadikov 137 

N 

Ne 138 
Nature D 
Nestor 7,65 
Neptune 2 
Nine Muses 37, 38 
Nine steps in the letter Zeta 157 
Nile river in Egypt 94 
Nympha 115 


Noteworthy fact about H 26 
Noteworthy fact about Q 33 
Noteworthy criticism of the 
commentatorson Virgil 41 
Noteworthy fact about the 


Greek Letter Phi 55 
Notable reason for pronounc- 

ing properly 63 
Noteworthy fact about the — 

compass and rule 85 
Notable rule for the number 

of centres 89 


Notable Secret 117 


TABLE 


Notable inconsistency in the 

Bible 127 
Names of the horses drawing 

Apollo’striumphal chariot 73 
NON PLUS 106 
Numbers that are odd bring 

good luck 125 
Number of persons requisite 

for a banquet 140 
Names of points used as 

vowels in the Hebrew 

language 163 
Names of the Hebrew letters 

162, 163 

Names of the Greek letters 168 
Names of the Chaldaic let- 


ters 179 
O 

Osallegorical meaning of 126 
O, Vocative Adverb 127 
Ogmion 4 
Oration 4 
(Oraison) Prayer 9 
Orthography 102 


(Ordonnance) Arrangement 
ofthe nine muses & Apollo 38 
(Ordonnance) Arrangement 
ofthesevenliberalartsand 
Apollo 38 
(Ordonnance) Arrangement 
of the nine muses, Apollo, 
the seven liberal arts, the I, 
and the O, in the flageolet 
of Virgil 43 
(Ordonnance) Coërdination 
of the human body with 


the seven liberal arts 46 


xviii 


(Ordonnance) Codrdination 

of the Owith the man with 

feet and hands extended 

equally 48 
(Ordonnance) Coürdination 

of the cross-stroke of the H 

with the human body 49 
(Ordonnance) Coürdination 

of the joint in letters with 

the human body 49 
(Ordonnance) Coordination 

of the length and breadth 

of the I & the O with the 

human face 53,54 
(Ordonnance) Coordination 

& correspondence of faces 

and letters in perspective 60 


(Ordonnance) Codrdination 


of the Homeric Golden 

Chain with the I 64 
(Ordonnance) Disposition 

for the Triumph of Apollo 74 
(Ordonnance) Disposition of 

the A made from three ls 


upon the flower of the Lis- 
flambe 75 
p | 

P is formed from B 129 
(Parolle empanee) Feathered 

words 7 
Parrhasia 16 
Parrhasians 15, 16 
Paris and its praise 16, 17 
Paris without peer ALES 
Parrhisians 17 
Paradisus 17 
Pallas 46 


TABLE 


(Parler rondement) Speak- 


ing round] 126 
(Per and Imper) Even and 

odd 26,27,40,78 
Phi 55 


Pinte & Cheopine are words 
derived from the Greek 17 


Picards 143 
Pythagoras 150, 151, 152, 153 
Plane surface 30 
Plan of the Coliseum at Rome 52 
(Plaisanteurs) Jesters 103 
Point 29, 158 
(Pot Cassé) Broken Jar and 
what it signifies 105, 106 
Points, square, hooked, and 
triangular 158, 159 
Points, various 159 
Points in Hebrew are vowels 162 
Protinam 12 
Primitives 13, 14 
Pronunciation of letters 119 
Pronunciation of Hebrew 
letters 162, 163 
Ilpertov 57 
(Puncta) Points 162, 163 
Q 33 
Qand V 132, 133 
Q changed to C 132 
Q is never a final Letter —133 
QVV for CV and vice versa 132 
(Quarre) Square 30, 126 
(Quatre) Four Cardinal 
Virtues 52 
(Quatre) Four Hebrew Let- 
ters almost identical with 
four others 163 


R 
R,a canine letter 134 
(Raison) Explanation of the 
Circle and the Square 48 
(Raison) Explanation of the 
Cross-stroke of the A in re- 
lation to the virile member 


of man 48 
(Raison) Explanation of the 
Cross 77 


Reason why we write three As 
at the beginning of the Lat- 
in and French alphabets 78 


(Rameau d’or) The Golden 

Bough of Virgil 67 
Radius 82 
Raphe 164 
Rule for making Attic Letters 78 
Rule of orthography 102 
Rebuses 103, 104 
Res 164 
(Rondement parler) Speak- 

ing roundly 126 
S 62, 63 
S forR 135 
Sor ST 140, 141 
ST 141 
S & D 155 
(Sigma) = 137, 138 
Sandal of Venus 2 
Sapience,La,School in Rome 142 
Sanguem 12 


(Sens moral) Allegorical mean- 
ing of Virgil’s Flageolet 41-43 
(Sens moral) Allegorical 
meaning of the Letters 
L, M,N, and O 125 


xix 


TABLE 


(Sens moral) Allegorical 


meaning of the Pythag- 
orean letter 151, 152 
(Science) Knowledge 67, 70 


Signification of the Four Car- 
dinal Virtues with Attic 
letters 53 

Signs of the Aspirate and of 


Lettersnotaspirated 108, 109 


Sicily 94 
Sigma 137, 138 
Silence 139, 140 
Spondee 112 
Superficial plane 30 
Al 
1e 143 
TE 143 
TN 143 
TR 143 
Tau 143 
Teth 143 
(Ternas scio) I know three 
letters 80 


The sign + indicates the spot 
where the fixed foot of the 
compass should be placed 83 


Thrasicles 37 
Theta 143 
Toulousans 141 
Triangle 31 


Triangle, the, is one of the no- 
blest figures in geometry 95 

Three twigs on the Golden 
Bough 70 

Triquetra [Sicily | 94 


Tyre 14 

Tissue of Venus 2 

©, ®,X,and P 169 

ONT Ae 143 
V 

V for E 96 


V is sometimes pronounced 
after G,sometimesnot 102 


Vaha 80, 111 
Vau 145, 146 
Venus 2 


(Vent meridian) South wind 
is pestilential, and 


(Vent de Bize) East wind is 


health-giving 51 
Virtues 150, 151 
Visages in perspective 60 
Virgil conceived an allegory 
of a Golden Bough 67 
(Voix florisante) Flowery 
Language 7 
Volupe 12 
(Volupte) Pleasure 151 
Vowels, Latin 70 
Virtue, the way of 151 
Vreus [ basilisk ] 183 
X 

X equals C&S, or G&S 147 
b | 

Ypsilon — 149 

REL: 149 
Z 

Zeta for two S’s and also for 

S&D PE 154 
Zetetæ 155 


To the Readers of this Book, humble Greeting. 

T iscommonly said & truly, that there is great natural virtue in herbs, 

in stones, &in words. To give examples thereof would be superfluous, 
so certain is this truth. But I would that it might please God to give me 
the power to effect so much by my words & requests as that I may be 
able to persuade some persons, even if they are not willing to do hon- 
our to our French tongue, to refrain at least from corrupting it. 

I find that there are three kinds of men who divert themselves by 
striving to corrupt & disfigure it: they are Skimmers of Latin, Jesters, 
and Jargoners. When the Skimmers of Latin say, Despumon la verbo- 
cination latiale, et transfreton la Sequane au dilucule et crepuscule, puis diam- 
bulon par les Quadriuies et Platees de Lutece, et comme verisimiles amorabun- 
des captiuon la beniuolence de lomnigene et omniforme sexe feminin? it seems 
to me that they not only deride their fellows, but themselves. When 
the Jesters, whom I can justly dub Slashers of Language, say, Monsieur 
du Page, si vous me baillex une lesche du jour, je me rue a Dieu, et vous dis du 
cas, Vous aures nasarde sanguine,” they seem to me to do as great harm 
to our language as they do to their clothes, by slashing & destroying be- 
yond reason what is of more worth when whole than when maliciously 
torn and mutilated. And so likewise, when Jargoners talk in their evil 
jargon and debased language, it seems to me not only that they are ear- 
marked for the gibbet, but that it would be well that they had never 
been born. Albeit Maistre Francois Villon, in his day, was vastly ingen- 
ious in this wise, yet he would have done better to have learned to do 
other more worthy things. But, at most, a fool who does not act the fool 
wastes his time. I might give some examples of the said jargon; but to 
avoid such evil knowledge will pass it by, and say that I would that such 
corrupters of decent speech were so well advised and wise as to reflect 
that a man who wishes to be truly at home in unsullied virtue ought 
always and in all places to doand say fine and goodly and honourable 
things. 

We know men by their deeds & their words. Let us so do therefore 
that our words shall be sound and acceptable in all good sense and in 
honour. Let us accustom ourselves to speak well and write well. So 
doing we shall find that it will be to our advantage, and that our words 
will have such great power that they will convince others by many an 
excellent saying. 


* It is difficult to translate 
this so as to make sense. 


* Tory's spellings, it will 
be noticed, are in most cases 
very different from those now 
in use; but in this matter he 
himself, like all writers of 
his time, was far from con- 
sistent. Vocale was used in 
the sense of ‘vowel’ a hun- 
dred years after Tory wrote, 
although ‘voyelle,’ the word 
now used in that sense, had 
then come into the language. 
“Harper meaning ‘to play up- 
on the harp,’ is found in Vol- 


taire. 


+ Juvenal,<Satires,’ 1,79. 
Tory gives a far-away para- 
phrase of the text after quot- 
ing. The sense is: ‘If nature 
denies the power to write 
verse, wrath produces it.’ 


O devoted lovers of well-formed letters, would God that some noble 
heart would occupy itself in establishing & ordering by rule our French 
language! By this means many thousands of men would strive often to 
make use of good, honest words. If it be not so established and ordered, 
we shall find that from fifty years to fifty years the French language 
will be in large part changed for the worse. The language of to-day is 
changed in numberless ways from the language as it was fifty years 
since, or thereabout. The author of the ‘Book of Chess said in his time 
Neantplus, & we say Non plus; he said Bien est voir, & we say, Bien et vray; 
in like manner, he said, Tenroit, Ne volt pas, and Le voyeu,& we say Tien- 
droit, Ne veult pas, & La vocale. He said a thousand other things, which 
Tomit for brevity’s sake. One could find tens of thousands of such words 
and phrases abandoned & changed, of which a hundred authors made 
use in timesgone by. In those times they wrote Herper for JouerdelaHerpe; 
they said Assembler a son ennemy, for Commancer a combatre; Lance roidde 
sus le faultre, for Lance mise sus larres, and Sonner des Gresles a lassault, 
for Sonner des Trompettes; Estre affesse meant Estre apoysanty; Ne vous deucille 
stood for Ne vous deplaise; Remettre son espee en son feurre for Remettre au four- 
reau; Forconseiller, for Malconseiller ; Tourbillonner, for Faire grant vent: 
and many other similar examples which might be set down, & of which 
one could make a large volume.* I should have ground to deplore the 
sterility of our handiwork; but I hope that by God’s grace some noble 
Priscian, some Donatus, or some French Quintilian will soon be born, 
if he be not already in existence. 

I find, further, that there isanother kind of men who corrupt our lan- 
guage even more, They are the Innovators and Coiners of new words. 
If such coinersare not pandars,| regard themas little better. Do but con- 
sider with what good taste they say after drinking, thattheir brain isall 
encornimatibule C'emburelicoque dung tas de mirilifiques O triquedondaines, 
dung tas de gringuenauldes O guylleroches qui les fatrouillent incessamment. 
I would not have set down such foolish words, had it not been that the 
contempt born of thinking of them made me do it. 

Si natura negat, facit indignatioversum.t Cndignation compels me to 
show their foolishness.) I think that there is no way fitly to make over 
such language, for those persons who coin it are incapable of sound 
reasoning. However, if our tongue were duly conformed to rule, and 
polished, such ordure could be ejected. Wherefore, I pray you, let us 


all enhearten one another, and bestir ourselves to purify it. All things 
xxii 


have had a beginning. When one shall have treated of the letters, and 
another of the vowels, a third will appear, who will explain the words, 
& then will come still another, who will set in order the fine discourse. 
Thus we shall find that, little by little, we shall traverse the long road, 
and shall come to the vast fields of poesy and rhetoric, full of fair and 
wholesome & sweet-smelling flowers of speech, & can say downrightly 
and easily whatsoever we wish. 


At Paris 
In all things your Geofroy Tory of Bourges. 


The sheets of this book are fourteen in number, and each of them is of 
three folios, except the first and last, which are of four each. 


[ This collation of the original edition of ‘Champ Fleury’ does 
not, of course, apply to the arrangement of the present volume. | 


THE ART AND SCIENCE 


OF THE PROPER AND TRUE PROPORTION OF’ 


THE ATTIC LETTERS, WHICH ARE OTHERWISE 
CALLED ANTIQUE LETTERS, AND IN COMMON 
SPEECH ROMAN LETTERS. BOOK I. 


PSS YING in my bed, on the morning of the 
BY OZ SN “EV Feast of Kings,* when I had had my sleep 
and rest, & my stomach had readily digest- 
ed its light and pleasant repast, in the year 
| that was reckoned as MDX XIII, I fell to 
% | musing and set the wheel of my memory 
> |awhirl thinking on a thousand little con- 
ceits, some serious & some joyous, among 
which there came to my minda certain An- 
tique letter which I had lately made for my lord the Treasurer for War, 
Maistre Jehan Groslier, Counsellor and Secretary to our Lord the King, 
lover of well-made letters and of all learned persons, by whom also he 
is much loved & esteemed on both this & the other side of the moun- 
tains, And whilst thinking of this Attic Letter, there came of a sudden 
into my memory a pithy passage in the first book & eighth chapter of 
the De Offictis of Cicero, where it is written: Non nobis solum nati sumus; 
ortusque nostri partem patria vendicat, partem amici.t Which is to say, in 
substance, that we are not born into this world for ourselves alone, but 
to serve & give pleasure to our friends & country. For this reason, de- 
siring to employ myself in some degree for the public good, bethought 
myself to show forth & teach in this little work the manner of making 
symmetrically, that is to say, in their due proportions, the Attic letters, 
wherein I see many men on this side of the mountains, who would fain 
make use of them,to be far from expert, to sucha degree that they know 
not of what dimensions and shapes they ought to be. I might treatalso 
of the lettre de forme and dela baStarde, but for this time, with our Lord’s 
assistance, I shall draw the Attic Letter only. Some have tried to turn 
me from my purpose, saying that I ought not to make it so public, but 
_ to keep it secret for myself. Saving their honour, I think not, and that 
I should not be avaricious of this useful knowledge. I might have dis- 
coursed and written in Latin, which I could well do, as I believe,and as 
anyone may know from the little Latin books which I have had printed 


* The Epiphany, or Twelfth 
Night. 


+ The proper reference is 1,7, 
22. Cicero ascribes the say- 
ing to “Plato. 


* An idiomatic phrase ex- 
pressing indifference. 


2 CHAMP FLEURY 


and placed before the eyes of zealous students, both in verse & prose.4 
But wishing to embellish our French tongue a little, and tothe end that 
the common people may make use of it, together with those whoare well 
versed in letters, I choose to write in French. Iam sure that soon some 
envious backbitér will appear, who will say that I aim to play the part of 
a new author, and will exert himself to decry my instruction and teach- 
ings. But I know from the ancient poets and philosophers that Momus 
was a knave who could never do aught but deride; as when he derided 
the sandals & robe of Venus, saying that there were too many sparkling 
and jingling spangles on it,and that they made over-much noise. Inlike _ 
manner he derided Dame Nature, for that she had placed the horns on 
the head of oxen and cows rather than on the shoulder, that they might 
strike with them more fiercely. He derided also the bull of Neptune, 
the house of Minerva, & the man of Vulcan; but chiefly this said man 
because Vulcan had made neither window nor wicket in his stomach, 
so that through these one might know what he was thinking and resolv- 
ing in his said stomach, which is full of concave places & convolutions. 
Of this said Momus you can read in Proverb CCCLX XIII of the first 
Chiliad of Erasmus, and in a book written by Leon Baptiste Albert, en- 
titled Momus.5 | 
| de say nothing in this work which I do not prove by authors wor- 
thy of faith, and by demonstrations as natural as they are manifest 
in Geometry; as may be seen from the figures hereinafter drawn by the 
compass & rule, which are tools of great certainty in measuring truly. 
| bine not be derided by Momus alone, but by three sorts of men, 
namely, the unlearned, the half-learned, and the much-learned. The 
unlearned will snap at me like poor ignoramuses, since learning hasno 
enemy save ignorance. The half-learned also will defame me, not un- 
derstanding what I shall say. Nor will the much-learned spare me,wish- 
ing & thinking to acquire renown by rebuking & correcting my errors, 
if there be any; and if perchance there be none, they will declare that 
a sheep has five feet instead of four, saying that a tail a foot long is as 
good as another foot, but as Erasmus says in his proverb CLX XXII, 
Carpet hac citius aliquis quam imitabitur (they will reprove me rather 
than resemble me). Against these evil speakers I will quote a fine 
ancient motto; and will say Acyovuow a Oelouaiv, eyeruoav ou pelet pou 
Dicunt que volunt, dicant non eff cure mibi. That is, they may say what 
they will, I care not. Susque deque fero.* Whatever they may say, I shall 


THE FIRST BOOK 3 


not cease to write in French, like a Frenchman, reminding them that 
Vitruvius of old was reproved and derided because, not being a Greek 
by birth, he wrote in Greek, as can still be seen in the greater number 
of the terms and tools and other things relating to architecture which 
he mentioned in his book.6 

N giving instruction how to make the Attic Letters aforesaid, I shall 

devote myself, with our Lord’s assistance, to setting forth, in their 
accustomed order, one after another, the qualities of each one accord- 
ing to the rules of grammar. I can see lying in ambush someone who 
would gladly find fault, and would strive to injure me if he could, or if 
he dared, but who, fearing lest, if he should show himself, I should in- 
stantly put him to silence by piercing his tongue with my trustworthy 
compass, and beating him with my unerring rule, will hold his peace, 
methinks. 
|| Seam write, then, in French, in my own poor fashion and mother- 

tongue, and shall not fail, albeit I come of lowly & humble forbears 
and am poor in paltry goods, to give pleasure to the devoted lovers of 
well-made letters. I know that it is said in the ancient proverb men- 
tioned by Erasmus in Proverb DXVIII of his first Chiliad, that sepe 
est etiam olitor valde opportuna locutus,*and that Pliny said: Nullum esse 
librum tam malum, vt non aliqua parte prodesse queat: There is no book 
so bad that it may not be good for something. And thereupon I dare to 
say that, with the aid of God and of this book, you will be able to make 
and draw the Attic Letter in its proper proportions, as small or as large 
as you may choose, in so far as the compass and the rule can do their 
work, 

Erein, perchance, Ishall appear a new sort of man, because no one 
has yet been known to teach by writing, in the French tongue, the 

form & qualities of letters ; but, wishing to enrich our language in some 
degree, I am content to be the first humble index finger to point the 
way to some noble mind who shall strive the harder, as did the Greeks 
and Romans of old, to establish and order the French tongue by fixed 
rules for pronouncing and speaking properly. Would God that some 
noble lord might bethink himself to offer rewards and handsome pres- 
ents to those who could do this well. 
LC is true that the style of Parliament and the speech of the Court 

are excellent; but even so, our language might well be enriched by 
certain fine figures & flowers of rhetoric, both in prose and otherwise. 


* Often a kitchen gardener 
has said the aptes things. 


* 111, 2, 18. They have an 
eloquence of their own.’ Tory 
published an edition of Mela 
im 1507. 


+ Line 111. 


4 CHAMP FLEURY 


Weare bynature eloquent above all other nations,as Pomponius Mela 
says; for he declares in the third book of his Cosmography, where he ts 
speaking of the character of the French: Habent tamen et facundiam 
suam:* The French are naturally eloquent and fine speakers. So, too, 
the satirical poet [Juvenal] says, in his fifteenth Satire:+ Gallia causi- 
dicos docuit facunda Britannos: France, he says, taught the English to 
plead and to speak rightly. 
I Cite Latin poets & orators to show that we havea gift of great beauty 
in our noble French tongue. I might well cite the Greeks in like man- 
ner, but from among them I will take only a short preface to the Gallic 
Hercules, written by Lucian, Greek orator & philosopher. I will give the 
translation from Greek into Latin by Erasmus, and then I will translate 
it from Latin into French. In Latin it reads as follows: 


Erculem Galli lingua gentis vernacula Ogmium vocant. Porro 

Deum ipsum noua quadam atque inusitata figura depingunt. De- 
crepitus est apud illos, recaluaster, reliquis capillis, si qui reliqui sunt, 
plane canis, cute rugosa, et in aterrimum exusta colorem, cuiusmodi 
sunt Nautæ isti. Charontem potius aut lapetum quempiam ex his qui 
apud inferos versantur, diceres. In summa, quiduis potius quam Hercu- 
lem conijceres ex imagine. Atque tali specie quum sit, tamen Herculis 
ornatum gerit, vt qui cum leonis exuuium indutus sit, tum clauam dex- 
tra teneat, tum pharetram humeris aptatam portet, tum arcum tensum 
Izua pratendat. Denique modis omnibus Hercules est. Hac equidem 
arbitrabar in græcanicorum deorum contumeliam perperam facere 
Gallos, quum eiusmodi fingerent effigie, quo nimirum illum talibus 
picturis vlciscerentur, quod olim in regionem ipsorum incursasset, pre- 
das agens id temporis quum Gerionis armenta estigans occidentalium 
gentium plerasque regiones peruastaret. Atnondumetiam dixi id quod 
erat in imagine maxime nouum atque mirandum. Siquidem Hercules 
ille senex ingentem admodum hominum multitudinem trahit, omni- 
bus ab aure reuinctis. Porro vincula cathenulz tenues auro electroue 
confectæ, pulcherrimis istis monilibus assimiles. Atqui cum vinculis 
vsque adeo fragilibus ducantur, tamen neque de fugiendo cogitant 
quum alio qui commode possint, neque prorsus obnituntur, aut pedi- 
bus aduersus trahentem obtendunt, sese resupinantes,verum alacres ac 
Læti sequuntur, ducentem admirantes. VItro festinantes omnes, et laxa- 
tis funiculis, etiam anteuertere studentes, perinde quasi grauiter laturi 


THE FIRST BOOK 5 


si soluerentur vinculis. Ne illud quidem pigebit referre, quod mihi vi- 
debatur omnium absurdissimum. Etenim quum non inueniret pictor 
vnde cathenularum summas ansas necteret, videlicet dextera jam cla- 
uam, lua arcum tenente, summam Dei linguam perterebrauit, atque 
ex hac religatis cathenulis eos trahi fecit. Ipse nimirum ad eos qui duce- 
bantur, vultum et oculos conuertebat arridens. Hac ego quum diutius 
assistens essem contemplatus, admirans, hesitans, indignans,Gallus qui 
propius astabat, nostratium literarum non indoctus. Id quod decla- 
rauit, quum græcanicam linguam absolute sonaret, philosophus opi- 
nor ex €0 genere philosophorum quod apud eos esse fertur. Ego tibi 
hospes, inquit, picturæ istius ænigma explicabo, nam videre vehemen- 
ter ad eam attonitus ac stupefactus. Orationem nos Galli nequaquam 
_arbitramur esse Mercurium, quemadmodum vos Græci, verum Her- 
culi illam tribuimus, propterea quod hic Mercurio longe robustrior ex- 
titerit. Nam quod senex fingitur, nihil est quod mirere. Siquidem vna 
facundia consueuit in senecta demum absolutum vigorem ostendere, 
simodo verum vestri dicunt poetæ,obduci tuuenum densa caligine pec- 
tus. Contra, Senecta posse quiddam dicere rudi iuuenta melius ac præ- 
clarius. Hinc videlicet apud vos et Nestoris lingua melle profluit, et 
Troianorum concionatores lirioéssam edunt, videlicet floridam quan- 
dam vocem. Nam liria, si satis commemini, flores appellantur: proinde 
quod ab auribus vinctos ad linguam trahit senex hic Hercules, qui non 
aliud quam ipse est sermo, ne id quidem debes admirari, qui quidem 
non ignores linguæ cumauribus esse cognationem. Neque vero ad con- 
tumeliam illius illud pertinet, quod ea pertusa est. Nam memini, in- 
quit et iambicos quosdem versiculos e comcedijsapud vos dicere. Siqui- 
dem viris locacibus extrema lingua perforata est omnibus. Quin de 
eodem hanc in summa habemus opinionem, vt, quicquid egit, id ora- 
tione,facundiaque confecisse putemus, vt pote virum sapientem, ac per- 
suadendo pleraque sibi subegisse. Iam tela illius nimirum rationes sunt 
acute, missiles, cite, atque animum sauciantes, vnde pennigera dicta. 
Hectenus gallus. 


The translation of this preface is as follows: 
HE French in their mother-tongue call Hercules Ogmium, are 
represent him in painting in a novel and unaccustomed fashion. 
They represent him as a bald old man, having only a very few sparse 


hairs behind, and those all gray and white. His skin is wrinkled, and 


6 CHAMP FLEURY 


burned black with the heat of the sun, as we see that old seafaring men 
are coloured ; you would say that he was a veritable Charon, or an Iape- 
tus, who dwell in the lower regions. In fine, to see him you would think 
him anything other thana Hercules. None the less, in this special pic- 
ture he carries the habiliments of the said Hercules, in that he is clad 
in a lion’s skin & has in his right hand a cudgel, & wears a quiver slung 
about his neck, and in his left hand a bent bow. In sum, he is a true Her- 
cules. Ithought ofa surety that all these thingswere done by the French - 
in derision of the Greek gods, conceiving that they fashioned him thus 
for revenge because of old, when he journeyed far to the West seeking 
the oxen and cattle of King Geryon, he made incursions & forays into 
their French country, laying waste many regions there. But Ihave not 
yet told what was most singularly novel and wonderful in this picture. 
Verily this old Hercules drew after him a marvellously great multi- 
tude of men & women, all attached to oneanother by the ear. The bonds 
were little chains of gold and amber, beautifully made, and resembled 
collars. And although they are all led and drawn along by these fragile 
chains, yet is there not one who tries to escape, though they could easily 
do so if they should wish. They do not hold back or turn or twist foot 
ot head, but all follow, light of heart and joyous, wrapt in admiration of 
him. All, of their free will, make speed to follow him, and slackening 
their bonds, strive to walk faster than he, as if they would be sorry to be 
released. And surely it willnot be amiss to tell also of that which seemed 
to me most unfitting. For when the painter found no place to attach 
the ends of these chains, seeing that in the right hand was the cudgel 
and in the left the’ bow, he pierced the tongue of the God Hercules, to 
which all these chains were attached, and thus made all the said men 
and women to be led behind him. Hercules turned his face and his eyes 
toward those whom he led, showing to them a gracious aspect & amiable 
countenance. I had stooda long time on my feet, says Lucian, beholding 
these things, marvelling much at them, doubting their truth, & waxing 
wroth, when a certain Frenchman standing near,who was not unversed 
in the Greek letters, since he pronounced them well & perfectly—a phi- 
losopher, I believe, of the school of philosophers commonly found in 
France—said to me: ‘My friend, I purpose to make clear to you the rid- _ 
dle of this painting, for you seem to me to be greatlyamazed & astound- 
ed by it. Among us we do notascribe eloquence to Mercury, as you do in 
Greece, but we ascribe it to Hercules, because he is much lustier than 


THE FIRST BOOK 7 


Mercury. You should not be astonished because he is old, for eloquence 
and fine speaking are wont to show forth their utmost vigour in oldage, 
that is, if your poets speak truly,when they opine that the mind of youth 
is engirt by a murky obscurity, & that age, on the contrary, says down- 
rightly what it desires to say, much better & more clearly than untaught 
youth ; and therefore,among you Greeks the speech of Nestor is com- 
pared to flowering honey. In like manner the ambassadors of the Tro- 
jans bedeck their language with flowers, and their orations are called 
Lirioessa: liria, in Greek, if I remember aright, are flowers. And this 
that you see—that this gray-haired Hercules draws on with his tongue 
all these men held fast by the ear—has no other meaning than that lan- 
guage adorns; and be not amazedat this, since you cannot fail to know 
that the tongue hasa certain connection with the ears. Nor shouldthere 
be aught of censure because his tongue is pierced, for I remember that 
in your comedies there are iambic verses which say that men who are 
great talkers always have their tongues pierced. And for this cause we 
French are, in fine, of this opinion, that whatever Hercules does he does 
by force of his eloquence and fine language, like a wise man who can 
well convince by subjugating what he will. The arrows in the quiver are 
his arguments, which are keen, penetrating, and nimble, transpiercing 
our hearts & wills. And therefore you say that speech is pennigera, that 
is to say, feathered, like an arrow. * 


HUS concluded the French philosopher, whom we can plainly 
perceive to have been one of the Druids, of whom many an au- 
thor makes pleasant mention. 
E see, then, by the words of Lucian behind the mask of this alle- 
, gory, that our language is so full of grace that, if it be spoken by 
a discreet and wise man, of mature age, it has such great efficacy that it 
persuades sooner and better than the Latin or the Greek. The Latins 
and the Greeks admit as much when they say that this Hercules was 
Gallic, not the Latin Hercules, or Greek Hercules. 
Il Have seen this allegory splendidly portrayed in Rome, near the Tur- 
ris Sanguineus, not far from the Church of Saint Louis, wherein the 
said Hercules and those whom he leads with his tongue by the earsare 
very well disposed—a little better than they are in that which is de- 
scribed on the first leaf of Pomponius Mela, which was printed by one 
named Andreas CratandrusBasiliensis, This Andreas places in the god’s 


* Although sufficiently close 
for this purpose, Tory’s ren- 
dering of the Latin is rather 
a paraphrase than a transla- 
tion.7 


8 CHAMP FLEURY 
left hand a bow discharging an arrow, while he holds the cudgel in his 


right hand ; whereas, in the other, the bent bow must needs be without 
an arrow; the arrows remain in their quiver, and if Hercules would dis- 
charge one, he must put the end of his cudgel on the ground, & the han- 
dle upright,against his stomach. The better to present the thing to the 
eye, I have made, below, a drawing, which is according to Lucian and 
according to the said portrait that Isaw at Rome, and also according to 
the translation from Greek into Latin which my lord Budé has placed 
in his annotations on the Pandects, at the passage where it is written: 


Ex L. pri. De fer, cor. §. Quod ait prator.® 


HERE FOLLOWS THE DRAWING OF 
FHE FRENCH RERCUEREs 


LE 
HER- 
CV- 
CES 
FRAN- 
COIS 


if with our eloquence there were fixed rules, it seems to me, under 
correction, that the language would be the richer and more perfect. 
And thereanent, because I remember and can give good reason why 
such rules could be maintained in this regard, and because I see every 
day many persons, learned and unlearned, goastray and use barbarisms 
and inept words, I say that for the preterit tense one can make such a 
rule and say: 

Henever the infinitive ends in re, the third person singular of 

the preterit should be preferred in it. as batre, batit ; faire, feit; 
vaincre,vainquit. Plaire and its compounds, which are complaire and des- 
plaire, are exceptions, for they make their preterit in eur: pleut, compleut, 
and despleut. Boyre, also, and croire make beut and creut. In like manner, 
eSre makes its preterit fut; croiffre, creut; and paire, peut. And whenever 
the infinitive ends in er, the preterit must end in a,as fraper, frapa; denser 


THE FIRST BOOK 9 


[danser], densa ; saulter, saulta ; and not frapit, densit, or saultit,as many 
say. Cognoistre and others with the same ending are exceptions, for they 
make their preterit in ewt,* as do the infinitives in oir: cogneut; concevoir, 
conceut; aparcevoir, aparceut. Infinitives in ir make their preterit in ##: 
faillir, failli; cueillir, cueillit, and not cueilla,as many unthinking per- 
sons say. 
Have made this little illustrative digression, to the end that some 
studious mind may grasp the opportunity of the subject I put before 
his eyes. 
H° who would lay his foundation well should, in my opinion, make 
use of the works of Pierre de Sainct Cloct & of the works of Jehan 
Linevelois, who have narrated the life of Alexander the Great in long 
lines, which the author who wrote in prose the Game of Chess,? alleges to 
consist of twelve syllables, & to be called Alexandrine verse, because, as 
has been said, the life of Alexander is told therein.t These two authors 
have in their style great majesty of ancient language; and I think that, 
if they had lived in the days when well-made letters were in their prime, 
as they are to-day, they would have surpassed all Greek and Latin writ- 
ers. [hey have, I say,in their compositions the perfect gift of every grace 
in flowers of rhetoric & ancient poesy. Although Jehan le Maire makes 
no mention of them, yet has he taken & borrowed from them the greater 
part of his fine language, as one may well perceive in reading attentively 
in his works and in theirs. Also one might well make use of the works 
of Chrestien deTroyes, and especially his Chevalier de I Espee, & his Per- 
ceval,which he dedicated to Count Philip of Flanders. Hugon de Mery, 
too, in his Tornoy de Lentecrift, and Raoul in his Romant des Elles. Nor is 
Paysant de Mesieres to be despised, who makes many a fine little coup- 
let, in his Mule sans Frein among others. Ihave lately seen and held in 
my hand all these aforementioned venerable ancient authors, written 
on parchment, which my lord and good friend, Brother Rene Masse of 
Vendosme, Chronicler to the King,'° generously and of his good-will 
showed to me. He uses them to such good purpose in making perfect 
his Chronicles of France, that I can honestly say of him,— 


Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Græci; 
Nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade.t 


Give place, give place, ye Greek and Latin writers; of Rene Masse is 
born a thing more beautiful and greater than the Iliad. 


* These, of course, are excep- 
tions to the first rule, in the 
same category with ‘esire,’ 
“croiStre,’ and ‘paisire.’ So the 
verbs in ‘oir’ are exceptions 
to the rule following relating 
to those in ‘ir.’ 


+ ‘The exaét origin | of the 
French word | is disputed, 
some deriving it ... fromthe 
name of Alexandre Paris, 
an old French poet who used 
this verse, and others from 
the fait that several poems on 
Alexander the Great were 
written in it by early poets 
Cone by the said Alexandre 
Paris).’—N.£.D. 


t Propertius, 11,34, 65. The 
poet is speaking of Virgil. 


*In classical Latin‘Clavam 
Herculi extorquere’ was a pro- 
verbial expression meaning 
something impossible of ac- 
complishment. “Both senten- 
ces are from Ælius Donatus’s 
commentary on V'irgil. 


10 CHAMP cBLEURY 


NE might, further, make use of the works of Arnoul Graban, and 

of Simon Graban his brother. Dante Alighieri, Florentine, as says 
my aforementioned good friend Brother Rene Masse, makes honour- 
able mention of thesaid Arnoul Graban. Andof thisArnoul I have seen, 
in the Church of the Bernardins at Paris, a picture wherein there is a 
prayer to the Virgin Mary which begins, ‘En Protestant, and the first 
letters of the verses of the last couplet contain his name and surname 
which aree Arnoldus Grabans me. For him who could obtain the works 
of Nesson, ’twould be a great joy to use the pleasant language which is 
contained therein. I have seen of them naught save a prayer to the Vir- 
gin Mary, which is printed in the first impression of the Calendrier des 
Bergiers. The last impression does not contain it, [know not why. Alain 
Chartier and George Chastelain, Chevalier, are authors well worthy to 
be read often, for they are very full of most dignified and heroic lan- 
guage. The Lunettes des Princes, too, is excellent for the graceful language 
that is contained therein. One might also make use of the fine Chron- 
icles of France which my lord Cretin, lately Chronicler to the King, 
has written so well that neither Homer, nor Virgil, nor Dante ever sur- 
passed him in excellence. And to show how much of grace our French 
language has when it is well controlled, I will set down here in passing 
a rondeau which, it is said, a woman of eminence in all good qualities, 
Madame Dentragues, made & composed. Also two useful little lessons 
whereof I know not the authors; and I will commend goodly minds to 
other excellent French works, there to do what Virgil did of old in read- 
ing the works of Ennius: Extrahere aurum de Sercore—Extract gold from 
dung; and of Homer: Extorquere clauam de manu Herculis—Snatch the 


cudgel from the hand of Hercules.* 


The rondeau is as follows: 


OUR le meilleur et plus seur chemin prandre, 
Te te conseille a Dieu aymer aprandre; 
Estre loyal de bouche, cueur, & mains; 
Ne te vanter, peu moucquer, parler moings, 
Plusque ne doibs scauoir ou entreprandre. 


RRs tes subiectz ne te chaille reprandre, 


Trop haultains faictz ne te amuse a comprendre, 
Et cherche paix entre tous les humains. 


Pour le meilleur. 


THE FIRST BOOK 11 


NG don promis ne faiz iamais attendre, 
Et a scauoir sans cesser doibz pretendre: 
Peu de gens fays de ton vouloir certains; 
A ton amy ne dissimule ou tains, 
Bien me plaira si a ce veulx entendre, 


Pour le meilleur. 
The first of the said lessons is as follows: 


I tuas maistre, sers le bien, 

Dis bien de luy, garde le sien, 
Son secret scele, quoy quil face, 
Et soyes humble deuant sa face. 


The other lesson: 


E souffre a ta femme pour rien 
Mettre son pied dessus le tien: 
Le lendemain la bonne beste 
Le vouldra mettre sus ta teste.!* 


[; it be true that all things have had a beginning, certain it is that the 
Greek language, and the Latin as well, were for long unpolished and 
without rules of grammar, as our own is to-day ; but virtuous and stu- 
dious writers took pains and diligently strove to reduce them to fixed 
rules, the better to put them to worthy use in writing and committing 
to memory the useful branches of knowledge, to the profit and honour 
of the public weal. | 

iB the time of the father of Latin poets, Ennius, who said in his rude 

language, before the Latin tongue was purified,— 


Vulturis in syluis miserum mandebat homonem ;* 


and in the time of the poet philosopher Lucretius, who said in his first 
book,— 


Visceribus viscus gigni sanguenque creari;t 


and also in the time of the comic poet Plautus, reputed and called the 
favourite of the Muses, who said, in his comedy Casina,— 


Non ergo istud verbum empsitem titiuillitio——t 


* Annales, 11, 33. 


+ Tory printed ‘sanguem- 
que’; but as Lucretius (1,837) 
wrote sanguenque, which is 
the form that Tory criticises, 
the word is so spelled here. 


t ‘Casina,’ 11, 5, 39. Com- 
mentators and editors are not 
agreed as to the frange word 
‘empsitem.’ 


* “Casina,’ IV, 2, 5. 
The following line is fromthe 
same play, V,3, 13. 


+ That is, the Latin lan- 
guage. As the ‘good authors’ 
he mentions are mainly post- 
classical, Tory’s comments 
carry a severe Stricture on the 
language of the classical au- 
thors.14 


12 CHAMP FLEURY 


and a little farther on,— 

Facite vostro animo volupe,—* 
and again, 

Hac dabo protinam, et fugiam,— 


men didnot yet write either according to rule or grammatically; where- 
as afterward the said Latin tongue was so well polished that it would 
to-day be shameful & foolish to say homonem, sanguen, empsitem, volupe, 
and protinam. There are a thousand other forms of speech of like sort, 
which Hieronymus Avantius, a native of Verona, sets down at the be- 
ginning of the annotations which he has made with such careful dili- 
gence on the works of the ancient poet Lucretius, which I leave for the 
curious and lovers of antiquity,and which you can see and read your 
fillof, in a dialogue entitled Osci et Volsci Dialogus ludis Romanis actus. 
‘Hen Donatus,Servius, Priscianus, Diomedes, Phocas, Agrestius, 
Caper, Probus, & other good authors of like sort had appeared, 
they polished it and put itt in such order, that it progressed from good 
to better in its perfectness, so that the Romans, who held sway over the 
greater part of the world, prospered more & won more victories by their 
language than by arms. Would God that we could do likewise,not that 
we might be tyrants and rulers over all men, but that, having our lan- 
guage well ordered, we might commit to memory and to writing the 
goodly arts and sciences. I see now that, if we wish to acquire some cer- 
tain kind of knowledge, we must beg and take it, as if by stealth, from 
the Greeks and Latins; and they have naught to get from us, or from 
what we are able to learn. Our language is as easy to regulate & put in 
order as the Greek tongue was of old, in which there are five varieties of 
dialect—the Attic, the Doric, the Æolian, the Ionic, and the Common, 
which differ from one another in the declination of nouns, the conjuga- 
tion of verbs, orthography, accents, and pronunciation, which a Greek 
author, Johannes the grammarian,& many others, discourse of & show 
very fully. In the same way, we might well do with the language of the 
Court and of Paris, with the Picard, the Lyonnais, the Limousin, & the 
Provencal. I would set down here some of the differences and similar- 
ities, were it not that I do not wish to take too much time hereon, and 
I leave it for those better informed than I to attend to it. 
if Make no doubt that sometimes new words appear in our language, 
and, as Horace says in his- Ars Poetica,— 


THE FIRST BOOK 13 


Multa renascentur, qu iam cecidere, cadentque 
Que nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet vsus.* 


Many words are reborn which were long since abandoned, and those 
which are current to-day will be abolished again, if usage wills. Usage 
and time bring and take away many words, old and new; and to this 
effect Pontanus says in his first book, De —Aspiratione: ‘Lapse of time 
made Messalamfrom Messana; valerium from valesio; furium from fu- 
sto; lites from sclitibus; locum from scloco; lemures from remulibus; ordeum 
from fordeo; Cassandram from Cassantra; from what was Odysseus, Vlys- 
sem; liberum from lebero; heri from here; sibi from sibe; curauit from coe- 
rauit; velocem from voloce; me from the accusative mee; bellum from duello; 
from @éjo, in which the I is doubled, aio; compesce from comperce; credas 
from creduis; des from duis; hespruginem from hesprug; and a thousand 
others.’ 
Pass all these things by, and return to our subject of letters; but it 
seems to me that it will not be without profit if, first of all, I write 
here of their origin and invention, as I have been able to read in divers 
authors, both ancient and modern. 
S to the invention of letters, there are different opinions. Priscian 
says that the Chaldeans were the original inventors.'5 Lactantius 
says, in his Insitutiones Divina, that the Egyptians first devised and de- 
signed them, like all other useful things, both of the hand and of the 
mind, which they invented, & this by favour of the temperate climate 
of the country where they live. And they themselves say that they were 
thefirst men. It isPlato’s opinion that letters have existed of all time, just 
as he believed that the world had always existed. Pliny, also, in chapter 
LV I of the seventh book of his Natural History, is of opinion that let- 
ters were always Assyrian; nevertheless he quotes diverse opinions. Jose- 
phus, Pomponius Mela, & the poet-historian Lucan are of opinion that 
the Phœnicians, who are in Syria, invented the letters. Lucan says,— 


Pheenices primi, famz si creditur, ausi 
Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris. t 


That is to say, the Pheenicians, if report is to be believed, were the first 
who tried to represent the voice of man in written forms and in letters, 
The said Josephus has left it in writing that the children of Adam in- 


vented the forms and characters of letters, and that they wrote in two 


* Line 70. Translated by 
Tory after quoting. 


À ‘Pharsalia,’ 111, 220. 


* Annales, X1, 14. 


1 ©. Curtius, ‘Alexander,’ 
IV, 2. 


Ÿ ax, 16, 


§ “De Bello Gallico, v1, 
13, 14, 16, 18. 


14 CHAMP FLEURY 


columns, leaving them to make known to their descendants the innu- 
merable ills, great hardships & tribulations which were to come. Abra- 
ham, the ancient philosopher and the prince of ruling patriarchs, was, 
in the opinion of some persons, the first inventor of letters. According 
to others, Moses first gave the Jews knowledge thereof; from whom the 
Phœnicians acquired the knowledge, & then the Greeks from the Phoe- 
nicians. Cadmus,according to Cornelius Tacitus,* & according to Pliny 
in the above-mentioned chapter & book, gave them to the said Greeks. 
Quintus Curtius, in his Book IIT], says that the inhabitants of the city 
of Tyre knew & taught them before any others, when he writes: Tyr4s, 
si fame libet credere, literas prima aut docuit, aut didicit.* That is to say: 
the city of Tyre, if report is to be believed, first taught or learned letters. 
Hercules, as Cicero says, in his book, De Natura Deorum,t gave them to 
the Phrygians. Nicostrata, who was called also Carmentis, as Cornelius 
Tacitus says, took them from Greece to the Latins. St. Cyprian the 
martyr says that Saturn first brought them into Italy, and taught how 
to stamp them on coins. St. Jerome narrates that Esdras, after the Cap- 
tivity of the Hebrews, invented them because they were lost, and made 
them in other shapes & characters which the said Hebrews still use to 
this day. 
I Should like right well to say who of their inventors brought them 
into France; but we are so poor in historians and followers of well- 
made letters, that I cannot recall an author of repute who has left a suf- 
ficient record thereof. Gaguin, however, says in the fourth book of his 
chronicles of France, that in the time of the King & Emperor Charle- 
magne, four disciples of the Venerable Bede whose names were Clau- 
dius, Joannes, Rabanus, and Alcuinus, came to Paris,and began to teach 
letters for pay, and that at the time the University took its beginning. 
But it does not follow that the making of letters and writing had not 
theretofore been practised. Long before Julius Cæsar came to France, 
the philosophers known as Druids were in the region of Chartres, at a 
place which is still called Dreux, & gave instruction there to all comers, 
making them learn by heart numberless thousands of letters. I cannot 
truly say here, or affirm, what manner of letters they taught, whether 
Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or French; but it is probable that they were 
Greek letters, as appears from the fact that Cæsar speaks of them in the 
sixth book of his Commentaries, § and that their appellation, Aouda, 
is Greek. I can also venture a conjecture that the Hebrew letters had 


THESFIRST BOOK 15 


been known there before; for I have seen in the hostel of Fescamp, with- 
in the University of Paris, a great stone whereon are carved many fine 
Hebrew letters. I have seen two other stones carved in Hebrew, which 
are set in the courtyard wall of the house from which depends the sign 
of the Trois Boittes, on rue de la Harpe, facing the end of rue du Foing. 
Another I have seen near the Cordeliers, which was found on the spot 
where a newly built house now stands, between the Porte de l’Univer- 
site, through which one goes to Sainct Germain des Pres, and the said 
Cordeliers, and of which half the letters can still be seen, inasmuch as 
they have been recarved; and the stone is used for a gutter to drip on. 
I doubt not that there are many others of the same sort, which I have 
not been able to see, which are in houses here & there, concealed in the 
earth. 

HE Hebrew & Greek letters were abolished by Julius Czsar ; for 

he and the Romans were such great gluttons of renown that they 
desired not only to conquer kingdoms and nations, but that, while they 
destroyed laws, customs, usages, and all other excellent things, and de- 
molished epitaphs and sepulchres, their victories and their arrogance 
should be kept in men’s minds through their Latin letters, thinking to 
surpass the Greek language, which they were not able to do, inasmuch 
as the said Greek language is composed of letters more fitly disposed, 
so that it is incomparably more fertile, more copious, and richer than 
their Latin. 

HE Greeks were instructors of the Latins in all manner of know- 

ledge ; witness Priscian, in the first book of his work on Grammar, 
entitled Dec Accidentibus Litere,when he says: Porro Graci quibus in omni 
doëtrina authoribus vtimur* ‘The Greeks, he says, ‘are our instructors 
in every sort of knowledge.’ 

Efore Cesar came hither & brought in his train his Latin language, 

the Greek letters may have been, and in fact were, current here; in- 
asmuch as, a long period of time and a great number of years earlier, as 
Baptiste of Mantua says in one of the books that he wrote to narrate 
the life of St. Denis, when Hercules journeyed beyond Spain, totheisles 
of the Hesperides, he passed through this country ;and when he was on 
the island of this city of Paris,t he took so great delight in viewing the 
country & the river Seine, that he began to build there; then, desiring 
to proceed with his enterprises, he left a company of his men-at-arms, 
who were called Parrhasians fromthe name of their province of Greece, 


*Book1, 4. The original has 
‘Postremo’ for ‘Porro.’ 


+ The Île de la Cité. 


16 CHAMP FEEURY 


on the coast of Asia, the name of which is Parrhasia. These Parrhasians 
left their names here, and by the change of A to I, the inhabitants of 
this city, were, and are to this day, called Parrhisiens. 

Hereafter these Parrhasians, living here, built on said island, and 

began, under a kindly and favourable horoscope, this noble city of 
Paris, which is to-day, more truly than Athens was in the olden time, 
the fountain-head of all branches of knowledge ; the standard of every 
virtue; the theatre of noble men ; the high seat of great minds; the sanc- 
tuary of devout souls, and the treasure chamber of all good things; in 
whose honour I shall very gladly quote in this place some fine verses of 
the poet Architrenius—as Baptista Pius bears witness in Chapter LXITI 
of his Annotations, when he says:— 


Altera regia Phoebt 

Parrhisius, Cyrrhea viris, Chrysea metallis, 
Græca libris, Inda studijs, Romana poetis, 

Attica terra sophis. Mundi rosa. Balsamus orbis. 
Sidonis ornatu. Sua mensis, et sua potu. 

Diues agris. Fœcunda mero. Mansueta colonis. 
Messe ferax, Inoperta rubis, Nemorosa racemis, 
Plena feris. Piscosa lacu. Volucrosa fluentis. 
Munda domo. Fortis domino. Pia regibus. Aura 
Dulcis. Ameena situ. Bona quælibet. Omne venustum. 
Omne bonum. Si sola bonis Fortuna faueret.16 


HAT isto say: Paris is a marvellous royal abode,wherein the glori- 

ous sun commonly breathes its gracious & divine aspect, bringing 
thither innumerable noble minds dedicated to the Muses, like those 
who dwelt long ago in the city of Phocis in Greece, called Cyrrha. Paris 
abounds in all sorts of precious metals, and isa very Greece in the mul- 
titude of books; a true India in useful knowledge and study; a second 
Rome in poets;an Athens in learned men. Paris isthe rose of the world, 
the balsam of the firmament. Paris is a second Sidon in outward splen- 
dour, abounding in all manner of food and pleasant beverages, rich in 
tilled fields, fecund in pure wine, & refined in her people. Very fertile 
in every kind of useful grains, without brambles and without worthless 
bushes; very abundant in vineyards and arbours; forests full of wild 
beasts, and the true birthplace of all good fish. Girt about by her beau- 


tiful river Seine. Spotless in her houses, strong in her Lord, venerable 


THE FIRST BOOK 17 


and lovable in her kings, delightful in her clear, soft air, delectable in 
her situation. In short, in Paris is to be found every respectable virtue 
and the treasure-house of all good, if Fortune choose to be always kind 
to her. 

Aptiste of Mantua, above-mentioned, in the passage cited, intro- 


duces St. Paul speaking to St. Denis, and saying :— 


Venies duce flumine tandem 

Parrhisios gentem vestris qua traxit ab oris 

Et genus et nomen; sed primæ barbara nonam 
Lingua notam vitio fandi succedere fecit. 


HAT is to say:“Thou shalt go’ says St. Paul to St. Denis, ‘along the 
noble river Seine to the Parrhisians, who had their origin & their 
name from one of your Greek nations. This nation was called Parrha- 
sian, but the common speech has changed the first letter of the alpha- 
bet, which is A, to the ninth, which is I, and they say Parrhisian,’ 
Il Can say further, with good reason, that the Greek letters were here 
before the Latin, since even to-day we have in use in our French lan- 
guage words and phrases which are more Greek than Latin, like Para- 
disus,- Angelus, Cygnus, and a thousand others, whereof few take notice 
because of the lack of rules in our language. 
E call a beautiful garden an earthly paradise (paradis) ,that is 
to say, Paradisus. An angel (ange ) is nothing more than a mes- 
senger,which is, in Latin, nuncius; thus we see that angelus—or in Greek, 
Ayyeloo—and amgeare much more akin and alike than munciusand ange. 
In like manner, cygnus, or Kuyvoo,* ismuch moreakin tothe French word 
cygne, than to the Latin, which is olor. However, who shall not choose 
to believe what I have said, let him amuse himself by reading the fifth 
book of Dec Asse, at the beginning of leaf CX CV of the edition of Ven- 
ice, which is called Aldine, and he will see how Monseigneur Budé tes- 
tifies in choice words to the fact that the names of the measures used 
in this noble city of Paris still have, for the most part, names like the 
Greeks, as are cheopina and pinta—cheopine and pinte. Melodia is nearer 
to the French word melodie than is the Latin concentus 7 I could give a 
thousand other similar & more manifest examples; but, with our Lord’s 
assistance, that shall be for another time. 
Aguin wrote in Book IIIT of his Chronicles that the books which 


St. Denis wrote of the celestial hierarchy, and which were sent by 


* The common Greek form is 
KUKVOG. 


* Michael IT, “Byzantine 
Emperor, 810-829. 


+ Louis I (814-840), King 
of the Franks and Holy ‘Ro- 
man Emperor, who was com- 
monly known as Louis the 
Pious, or ‘Le Débonnaire.’ 


t That is, in the time of St. 
Denis who lived in thethird 
century, A.D. 


18 CERAM PIP DE UY: 


theEmperor Michael of Constantinople*toKing Louis le Piteable,t son 
& successor of Charlemagne, were written in Greek.18 It follows there- 
fore that the Greek letters were current here before the Latin ones, since 
they were more highly esteemed, & the said Latins were in those daysi 
still in the uncouth and rude stage, as one can plainly see in the works 
of the authors &writersof that time, likeGrecismus,!9 Tardivus, Alanus 
de Parabolis, Floretus, Compotus, Alexander de Villa Dei, and many 
others, who are not worth calling to mind because of the crudeness and 
rude language of their works, rather Latin-y than Latin, that is to say, 
without elegance and without flowers of rhetoric. 

Oreover, when St. Denis, St. Rusticus, and St. Eleutherus came 

from Athens to Paris to give instruction in the Christian faith, 
like the Greeks that they were, they taught it in Greek rather than in 
Latin, in memory whereof we see that, even to this day, on the feast of 
St. Denis, the religious of the church & convent of l’Abbaye St. Denis 
in France chant the gospel of their high mass in Greek. For which rea- 
sons, let anyone deny it who will, it seems to me that the Greek and 
Hebrew letters were current here before the Latin, & that what so in- 
creased the authority of the said Latin was only the arrogance and insa- 
tiable avarice of the Romans, who desired to destroy utterly the afore- 
said excellent ancient & divine tongues, and to put theirs above them, 
which falls far short of them in every element of perfection, as they can 
well judge who know all three, or only the Greek and Latin. My lord 
Budé, diamond and pearl among learned and well-lettered Parrhisians, 
has written most elegantly of the likenesses between the Greek & Latin 
letters, in the third book of his excellent work De Asse, and can therein 
abundantly satisfy those who desire more ample knowledge of the said 
Greek letters. 


F I had been able to find written mention of our letters de forme and 

bastarde, or, as I have said before, if I could have found any man will- 
ing and able to instruct me about them, I would have set them in order, 
according to their true proportions; but, God willing, that will be for 
another time. At this moment] will discourse only of the Attic Letters, 
which are commonly called Antique letters, and, by abuse, Roman let- 
ters. But first I beg good students & true lovers of well-made letters to 
forgive me if I have beena little long in thus digressing to lament the 
sterility of our hands, which are too ill-cared-for to write well. 


THE BIRST BOOK 19 
fees said Attic letters are properly called Attic, and not Antique, 


or Roman; because the Athenians made use of them before the 
Romans or any man in their Italy, however much the said Romans and 
Italians have made parade of them in their sumptuous palaces and tri- 
umphal arches, as one can see in Rome, by the ruins that are found here 
and there in a great part of that city, surrounded by duck ponds. 
Purpose to say here a thing unknown to many studious persons, how- 
beit I know that there are tens of thousands more learned than Iam. 
It is that this said Attic letter was invented in a country of Greece called 
Jonia,which is,as Pomponius Mela says,* at the edge of Asia Minor, be- 
tween Caria and Æolia. Ionians first invented, drew, & proportioned it. 
But theAthenians,whowere the sovereign lords & masters of allGreece, 
brought it into use and credit, so that it has and still retains their name. 
. To show that it is true that the Ionians invented these Attic letters,and 
that not only the Athenians, but all other nations made use of them, 
Pliny says at the end of Book VII of his Natural History, in chapter 
LV II: Gentium consensus tacitus primus omnium conspirauit vt lonum lite- 
ris uterentur. That is to say: by the universal agreement of all peoples, 
the Ionian letters were used by all. This invention was converted into 
a legend, as the Greeks were wont to do in all matters; as can be sufh- 
ciently seen in Boccaccio’s book De Genealogia Deorum.t 
ge pretended that Jupiter was once enamoured of the daughter 
of King Inachus, to such a pitch that, in order to have his pleasure 
of her alone, he surrounded her with darkness. But Juno, sister & spouse 
of Jupiter, perceiving that darkness, jealous spouse as she was, suspected 
what was toward, and came down to earth to see what that darkness sig- 
nified, it being broad day. Whereupon Jupiter, seeing her approach, in 
order to conceal his actions, changed his love into the shape of a beau- 
tiful young cow. But Juno did not give over her purpose, & began slyly 
to praise the cow’s beauty, & finally asked her husband for her as a gift. 
Jupiter, finding himself at a loss for an excuse, could not deny her, and 
gave the cow to her. And straightway, when she had her for her own, 
she thanked him ; and, being in haste to take vengeance for the affront, 
she gave her in charge to her shepherd, one Argus, who had in his face 
and all over his head a hundred eyes, which never slept all at the same 
time, but two by two, while the others kept watch. This Argus treated 
her harshly, often beating her with his heavy cudgel,throwing stones at 
her head and tail and legs, driving her hither and yon during the great 


* ‘Cosmographia,’ 1, 2, 66. 


+ The Greek custom of convert- 
ing all things into legends is 
shown by the work as a whole 
rather than by any particular 
passage. 


20 GHAMPsrPGE GURY: 


heat of mid-day, to make her to be stung & bitten by the hornets & big 
flies. Then, driving her back with blows to her shed, he gave her naught 
to eat but the bitter bark and tough twigs of trees. The poor creature 
would gladly have told the said Argus who she was; but instead of try- 
ing to speak, she bellowed & gazed at him, weeping bitterly the while. 
Upiter, seeing the hardships that his love had to endure, & the cruelty 
of Argus, one day changed his messenger Mercury into the form of 
a shepherd keeping kids & lambs,and sent him to Argus, who was tor- 
menting the said cow among the fields and valleys. Mercury came up, 
leading his flock, & playing most melodiously on his pipes, so that Ar- 
gus called to him to come and rest on the grass beside him where he lay 
at full length in the shade of a cliff. Mercury saluted him, & then, after 
they had talked a while & wished each other well, he began to play up- 
on his pipes even better than before, so that Argus took great delight 
therein. But Mercury, the better to carry out his purpose, ceased and be- 
gan to talk and discourse in praise of music so that he awoke in him the 
desire to learn that art and to play upon pipes. Thereupon, moved by 
Mercury’s words, Argus begged him earnestly to play again upon the 
pipes, which he did at once, and with such skill and so melodiously that 
he lulled him into slumber so profound that all his eyes, which were, 
as has been said, a hundred in number, fell asleep at once; whereupon 
Mercury took his shepherd’s knife and cut off his head. 
HE beautiful cow, seeing that she was delivered from him who 
had so tormented her, was very glad, & went away, wandering here 
and there, until she came toa place where her father, Inachus, had been 
changed intoariver-god, otherwise called a sea-god. This Inachus,know- 
ing naught of his daughter’s unfortunate plight, and thinking that she 
was in truth a cow, offered her handfuls of tender and sweet-smelling 
grasses, & patted her affectionately, touching her with his divine hands 
on brow and back and flanks, until, as he went and came about her, he 
saw his daughter’s name written in the place where the beautiful cow’s 
foot had pressed the earth: a name of two letters only—I and Q, from 
which name the country was called Ionia, and its people Ionians. 
Hen Inachus saw his daughter’s name thus written, & knew that 
she was changed into a cow, he began to cry out: ‘My daughter 
and dear love, I have sought thee so long over mountains and valleys 
and have never been able to find thee; but not dreaming of such good 
fortune, I have met thee, and unthinking, recognized thee. 


ite BiRST BOOK 21 
V'idius Naso, a little before the end of the first book of his trans- 


formations & poetic fables which he calls. Metamorphoses, narrates 
this fable most happily, as is his excellent custom. I would gladly quote 


it all, because of the pretty wit in which it abounds; but it would take 


too long; however, I will write down a part of it. 


Decerptas senior nat porrexerat herbas, 

Ja manus lambit, patrijsque dat oscula palmis, 

Nec retinet lachrymas; et si modo verba supersint, 
Oret opem, nomenque suum, casusque loquatur. 
Littera pro verbis quam pes in puluere duxit, 
Corporis indicium mutati triste pergit, 

Me miserum exclamat pater Inachus, inque gementis 
Cornibus et niueæ pendens ceruice juuence ; 

Me miserum ingeminat, tu ne es quæsita per omnes 
Nata mihi terras; tu non inuenta reperta es.* 


That is to say: Old Inachus offered plucked grasses to the beautiful 
young cow, his daughter, who licked & kissed his hands, unable to keep 
from weeping and wailing. If she could have spoken, gladly would she 
have asked aid, & would have told her name, narrating her misfortunes; 
but the writing that her foot made as she walked on the dust was a sad 
proof of the transformation of her lovely maid’s body into a cow. In- 
stantly, when her father, Inachus, perceived the said writing, he began 
to cry out, clinging to the horns of his daughter, lamenting in the shape 
of a snow-white heifer: ‘Oh, unhappy me!’ said Inachus; ‘alas, my 
child, [have sought thee in innumerable places, & never until this hour 
have I been able to find thee.’ 
Tovanni Boccaccio, a very learned and studious man, has told this 
whole fable at great length in Book VII, Chapter X XI of his De 
Gencalogia Deorum, setting it forth very clearly in its allegorical mean- 
ing, as those may see who choose to consult that work. But in this place, 
and for my purpose, I will interpret the allegory as I understand it,and 
I believe that you will think that it is well interpreted. 
Say, then, that we are to understand that Jupiter, who was enamoured 
of Inachus’s fair daughter, is the soft air of Ionia, that pleasant abid- 
ing place, where bright minds found the strength to invent art, letters, 
and knowledge in general, even as we see that the air of Paris is much 
more clear and soft & agreeable than that of any other place in France, 


* ‘Metamorphoses,’ 1, 645. 7° 


22 CHAMPOPE BURY 


and that all useful knowledge and excellent virtues have always, from 
her foundation, flourished & prospered there, and grown in sovereign 
perfection; to such a degree that she has no peer in all Christendom; 
and, being a place surrounded by walls with eleven gates, she is superior 
in excellence to any kingdom on earth. I do not mean to decry other 
places in order to exalt her, but there is a common proverb that Paris is 
without a peer. 
if Return to my allegory, & say that by the fair daughter of Inachus, lo, 
is meant knowledge, which is given by Juno, who represents Riches. 
Few persons attain to wide knowledge without the aid of money; and 
for this reason we see that poor scholars, who wish to attain perfection, 
struggle & strive to have some kindly Macenas, or some Pollio—that is 
to say, some good man who will assist them to be maintained at school 
and in their studies. 
Rgus, with the deformity of so many eyes, signifies those who, of : 
their rudeness & evil knowledge, persecute good]y letters & learn- 
ing with their wicked, sterile, and crude teaching, and bring contempt 
upon men of great learning by imposing upon them new conditions, 
in order to turn them back and deprive them of all their power. In the 
hands of such men, knowledge is in durance & is not fed on the sweet 
herbs of grammar, or on flowers of rhetoric, but on the rough bark of 
barbarism and the bitter twigs of solecism. 
Ercury, playing upon his pipe and cutting off the head of Argus, 
will be interpreted here as the man who is diligent in seeking the 
purity of all goodly letters and true knowledge, by employing for the 
better instruction of others both his spoken and his written words, and 
quelling & putting to shame the inveterate barbarisms of the unlearned, 
even as we see three noble personages to be doing to-day: Erasmus the 
Hollander, Jacques Le Fevre of Estaple in Picardy, & Budé, the pearl 
of noble and studious Parrhisians, who, by night and day, keep watch 
and ward, and write for the profit of the public weal and the exaltation 


of perfect knowledge. 


Return then to our said Attic letters, and as to the legend of Io, I say 
that these two letters, I and O, are those from which all the other 
Attic letters are made and fashioned. The A is made from the Ialone. 
The B is made from the I, and from the O divided. The C is made 
from an Oalone, divided. The D from an I and O divided. And in like 


ahi De BOOK. 23 


manner all other letters are made either from one of these two, or from 
both together, as I shall show hereafter, & shall prove, with our Lord’s 
assistance, by figure & proportion. We may say also that the O is made 
from the I; but we may well consider that the O is a model for the 
handles and curves of other letters than itself. 
Bserve in passing that the IQ, as the name of the fair daughter of 
Inachus, is written with Lota and Omega, that is with a vowel I,and 

with Q, which is long in metrical quality; but for my purpose 10 will 
be written with Omicron, that is, with a short O, for the reason that it is 
a simple and regular letter, and is better fitted to make a clear demon- 
stration of the proportioning of the curves of the other letters than is 
the said Omega, which is itself made from Omicron by writing it twice 
side by side & touching, in conformity with the rule of grammar which 
requires that a vowel long in metrical quantity shall be equal to two 
short ones, and two short to one long. 

Purpose to set down here another little secret in connection with 

what I have said, that our Attic letters are all derived in shape and 
made from the I & the O. It is this—that to commemorate the inven- 
tion and perfection of these letters, the word Io came into use as a prov- 
erb signifying exaltation and triumph, as in saying Io pean, Io triumphe. 
Ovid says in his 41s Amoris,*— 


Dicite Io pzan, et Io bis dicite pæan. 


So Codrus Urseus, humorous poet and orator, reading lately in public 
at Bonoigne la Grasse, composed a Latin ballad to entertain the guests 
at a banquet, beginning thus:— 

Io, Io, dicamus Io, Io, dulces Homeriaci.2+ 


And Horace says, in one of his Odes: + 


Non semel dicemus Io, triumphe. 


Say, therefore, that, to show the joy which the ancient Ionians felt in 

having invented & designed these said Attic letters, theword Iocame 
into such common use as a proverb expressing joy, that it is still recalled 
to mind every day. TheGreeks,as their custom was, made a legend of it; 
indeed, two others besides the one I have heretofore narrated, which 
I leave for good students to read in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, in the 
De Genealogia Deorum of Boccaccio, and in Proverb CCCX XXII, of 
the second Chiliad of Erasmus. 


ogre Bos Ps 


T IV; 2, 49. 


* The passage quoted occurs 
in the Commentary on Chap- 
ter LXI. 


24 CHAMP FLEURY 


Eneath the outer husk of fable, Truth lies hid, & can be known only 

to him who looks upon it & considers it close at hand. There is an- 
other poetic legend of the inventor of this Attic letter, which I will set 
down here in brief. It is to the effect that Apollo once loved a comely 
young man named Hyacinthus, with so great a love that he kept him 
always in his sight & by his side. One day Apollo was amusing himself 
by throwing a huge vessel into the air, to test his strength & increase it 
by exercise; and once, when he had thrown the said vessel, Hyacinthus 
passed under it, so that it fell upon him and he was killed. Apollo was so 
grieved, because of his great beauty and of the great love he had for him, 
that to atone for his life, which by an evil chance had been taken from 
him, he transformed him intoa lily, of a purple hue, which is called in 
Paris lisflambe,and made in the said lily two letters, Y and A, which we 
can still see there in some sort, traced in black and yellow on the petals 
of the lily. The whole plant is called by some doctors H IPIX, by others 
Gladiolus. The root has a sweet odour, and is mixed with other sweet- 
smelling things for keeping linen in chests. Marcellus Virgilius, Flor- 
entine scrivener, & commentator on Dioscorides, takes great pains, at 
Chapter LVIIT* of Book III of said Dioscorides, to give it to be under- 
stood that Hyacinthus is the lily which the Parrhisians call Jisflambe; 
but I will quote only a few words now, & these are as follows: Siquidem 
parum deflexa ab Hyacintho antiqua voce Irim Florentia adhuc passim Hy- 
acinthiolum nominat. ‘It is certain, he says, ‘that the Florentine tongue 
still calls the plant which is otherwise called Iris, Hyacénthiol, by chang- 
ing the ancient vowel.’ I have also heard and learned from the Floren- 
tines & other well-informed Italians that the lisflambe is called in vulgar 
Italian Hyacinthiol. For which reason it seems to me, under correction, 
that Hyacinthus and /ésflambe are one & the same. Let him who would 
know more about it read the said Commentaries of Marcellus Virgil- 
ius, & he will find there all he needs. Ovid, the fountain-head of sweetly 
flowing Latin verse, narrates this fable very fully & clearly in his Meta- 
morphoses, near the beginning of Book X; but I will quote at this time 
only a portion of it, as follows :— 


Talia dum vero memorantur Apollinis ore, 
Ecce cruor qui fusus humi signauerat herbas 
Desinit esse cruor tyrioque nitentior ostro 
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia, si non 


THE FIRST BOOK 25 


Purpureus color his; argenteus esset in illis. 

Non satis hoc Pheebo est, is enim fuit autor honoris, 
Ipse suos gemitus folijs inscribit et hya 

Flos habet inscriptum, funestaque littera ducta est.* 


That is to say: while Apollo poured forth his grief-stricken lamenta- 
tions, the blood of the comely Hyacinthus flowed down the grass, and 
being redder than scarlet, grew into a flower, & took the shape of a lily, 
yet not of a white and silvery colour, as the lily properly is, but of the 
hue of the /isflambe, which is purple. And this did not content Apollo, 
otherwise called Phoebus, for, desirous to be the creator of the renown 
of Hyacinthus, he wrote his lamenta- 
tions on the petals of the flower of the 
lisflambe, placing thereon these two | 
fatal letters in black, Y and A. The 
better to explain Ovid’s words, I have 
placed here a picture of the lisflambe, 
nearer to reality than it has been pos- 
sible for me to describe it in words. 


Irgil, too, in the third Eclogue 

of his Bucolics, refers to this leg- 
end invery strange fashion,under the 
guise of an enigma & obscure words, 
when he introduces Damcetas and 
Menalcas, shepherds, contending in 
song, and Menalcas, in his turn, says: 


Dic quibus in terris inscripti 
nomina regum 
Nascantur flores, et Phyllida 


solus habeto. 


That is to say: Tell me, in what coun- 
tries are born flowers inscribed with 
the names of kings, & take for your- 
self alone the pretty shepherdess, Phyllis. Servius Maurus, commenta- 
tor on Virgil, says that the enigma may be understood to mean Ajax as 
well as Hyacinthus, because Ajax also was fabled to have been changed 


* Ovid, Metam., x, 209.73 


* Verse 75. 


26 CHAMP EB URY 


after his death into this flower, lésflambe, purple in hue. But for my pur- 
pose I shall stop at Hyacinthus, & interpret the allegory of the legend 
thus: that Apollo is reputed & called God of the nine Muses, who are 
the useful branches of knowledge, and that he also represents the Sun, 
who breathes into us vigour of mind and body; and he so loved Hya- 
cinthus,—that is,natural good sense,—that after he had taken from him 
the vigour of youth & self-indulgence, he changed him into the flower 
of prudence and wisdom; so that the letters, that is, the memory of the 
change from self-indulgence to sobriety, remain written and manifest 
in the said flower of prudence & wisdom. Hyacinthus, it is true, is to-day 
written, or in other words spelled (orthographie) with the breathing h. 
In former times the character denoting the said breathing was not writ- 
ten. But the Greeks, after this legend was invented, began to use it in 
their regular language over their seven vowels, which are A, E, H, I, O, 
Y,Q, and over a single consonant, Rho—not as a letter, but as an accent; 
and they use it only with the said vowels & consonant, above the line of 
the letters. The Latins made use of it in other fashion than the Greeks, 
and wrote it on the line, commingling it with several other letters, so 
that it is considered a true letter. 


Il Have said that the letter A, which is the first letter of the alphabet, : 
—otherwise called the A B C,—is made from the letter I; and this 
is true, representing it in a triangle, which is an odd number. The two 
feet of the À and the head make the said triangle; but it must be placed 
within a square, which is represented by the word Hyacinthus, which 
consists of four syllables, Hy-a-cin-thus. The ancients, wishing to dem- 
onstrate the extraordinary perfectness of their letters, formed and fash- 
ioned them according to the proper proportions of the three most per- 
fect figures of geometry—the circle, the square, and the triangle. And 
because an odd number was always considered among the ancients as a 
lucky number, and they held it in such great veneration that it had its 
place in ceremonies and sacrifices—as we still see in our churches the 
glorious Trinity; and that for saying high mass there are the priest, dea- 
con,and sub-deacon ; and as Virgil says, in Eclogue VIII Numero deus 
impare gaudet,*—that is to say, God loves an odd number,—they made 
their first letter in the image of an odd number placed upon the square, 
which is an even number, to givea good opening & fortunate approach 
to those who may love and wish to study well-made letters. 


THE FIRST BOOK 27 
HE odd number, as Macrobius says in the first book of De Satur- 


nalibus,* represents the male, & the even number the female,which 
means that, as by the conjunction of male & female man is engendered, 
so by the conjunction of letters syllables are made, and by the conjunc- 
tion of syllables, words. And speech, by the putting together of well- 
assorted letters, syllables, and words, is found to be good, polished, and 
flowing. | 
ae triangle and square are comprised in a circle,which figure con- 
tains more than any other, & denotes that full & perfect acquaint- 
ance with the Muses & with goodly learning abides in well-made letters, 
by means of which one can study and read, write, and set down 
in books and in the memory, as the philosophers and 
ancient writers did in days of old, and as 
we can do by practising day and 
night in reading and 
writing. 


fein) OF THE FIRST BOOK 
THE SECOND FOLLOWS. 


* Commentarii in Somnium 
Scipionis, 1, 6,7; 11, 2,17. 


- ~ - 
= ene 
; 
+ = 2 
: SE : “hs 
; + 
| ' = = 
. 
. ‘ , 
¥ 
2 “ar 
. 
- 
; ‘ 
D 4 
~ 
: ‘ 
< 
; 
‘ 
= CS RE RES ag a CUP. 
Len. cite. D a = + reat Se RTE = i SO < Piet bade ke a 7 5 


THE SECOND BOOK 


S Tam about to begin to teach howour first 
letter, A, is to be made from the I, I would 
beg the good student to learn, first of all, 
what the Point is; and what the Line is, 
whether straight or not straight, whether 
it is what is called curved, or angular; and 
what the Circle is, what the Square, what 
the Triangle; and consequently to learn 
the most common figures of Geometry. 
For these Attic letters of ours are all made and designed from them, as 
I shall show, with our Lord’s assistance. And to the end that you may 
have no excuse for ignorance, I will set down here their definitions, 
one after the other, and will describe them in the terms used by Euclid 
long ago. 
Unctus, he says, es cuius pars non es. That is to say, the point is a 
mark that cannot be divided. And, as Messire Charles Bouille says 
in his Geometry, in French, ‘The point is called neither quantity nor 
measure, but it is the end of every quantity ; it has neither length, nor 
. breadth, nor thickness.’ *4 
Inea, says Euclid, est Jongitudo sine latitudine, cuius quidem extremitates 
sunt duo puntta. The line is length without breadth, of which the 
ends are two points. As Bouille says: ‘The line is the first and smallest 
quantity of all, having length only, without breadth or thickness; as 
B. Aulus Gellius, in chapter XX of his first book,* 
says to the like purpose: Linea autem a noftris dicitur, quam YP AMMHN 
Graci vocant. Eam M. Varro ita definit : Linea est, inquit, longitudo qua- 
dam sine latitudine et altitudine. Euvdeduc autem breuius, prater missa alti- 
tudine. TPAMMH eff, inquit, uunoo andateo. Id est longitudo illatabilis, 
quod, exprimere Uno latine verbo non queas, nisi audeas dicere ILlatabilis.t 
That isto say: What the Latins call /émea, the Greeks call yeauunv. Mar- 
cus Varro describes and defines it thus: ‘The line, he says, ‘is a sort of 
length without breadth or height.’ Euclid describes it more briefly, 
omitting the height, when he SAYS + YQaHHH EOTI HHHOO andates ; that is to 
say: the line is length without breadth (é//atable), which cannot be 
widened ; the which cannot be expressed plainly in Latin, unless you 
make bold to say, /latabilis. 


* Noffes Attica, 1, 20, 9. 


+ Gellius manufattured this 
word (from ‘in’ and ‘la- 
tus’), to translate Euclid’ s 
amatc. Tory’s transla- 
tion is sufficiently close. 


* In modern French, ‘super- 
ficie’; in English, ‘plane.’ 


+ Modern French, ‘carreau’ 
and “carré.” It seems hardly 
worth while to attempt a dis- 
tinttion in translating, espe- 
cially as Tory is inconsistent 
in his use of the words. 


30 CHAMP FLEURY 


ee recta, says Euclid, est ab uno punélo ad alium breuissima extensio,in 
extremitates suas ea vecipiens. Che straight line is the shortest distance 
from one point toanother—that is, between two points, including them 
both at its ends. When one straight line stands upon another straight 
line,and the twoangles on either side are equal to each other, and right 
angles, the said line standing upon the other is called a perpendicular 
line, because it descends straight (pend droitte) upon the other horizon- 
tal line. With these two lines—the straight line & the perpendicular— 
we will make a figure, which is called in Euclid superficies plana, qua ef 
ab una linea ad aliam breuissima extensio in extremitates suas ea recipiens. 
We can say in French, superfice,* or plaine, &, as Bouille says, it is the sec- 
ond & middle quantity, having length & breadth, but no thickness, as 
in the next square, thus marked—a, b, c,d—of which the length is meas- 
ured by the line ac, & the breadth by thelineah. =, b 
His plane, having its four lines and angles equal, 
is a square (quarreau), but in my style I shall call 
it quarre,t which, for the making of our letters, I di- 
vide by eleven straight horizontal lines & other eleven 
straight perpendicular lines, so that the large square ° d 
will contain a hundred small squares, which I shall call ‘units’ (corps), 
because the length of the I, which will 
be of the same proportions as all the 
other letters, will be contained in one 
of these small squares, as is shown in 
the following figure: 
if Have left in the middle of this fig- : 
ure a small white square which is 
the unit of the said letter I, & which I 
shall call the unit of each letter,saying 
‘this letter’ or ‘that letter’ has so man 
units of height &so many of breadth. 
Here are two kinds of lines—a straight line & a curved line. Of the 
straight line we have already written, & we may b 
say again that the straight line is that which goes the 
shortest way from one point to another. The curved 
line, says Bouille, is two-fold, for there is a perfect 
curve [circle ] & an imperfect one. The perfect circle 
isa circumference which returns to the same point at d 


THE SECOND BOOK 31 


which it set out, like the circle abcd, which set out at z and returns to z 
b at the end, and is called by Euclid, Circulus, qui est figu- 
GA ra plana, vna quidem linea contenta, qua circunferentia 
a _ \¢ Vocatur, in cuius medio punttus est, a quo omnes linea vette 
et ad circunferentiam exeuntes sibi inuicem sunt aquales. “The imperfect 
curved line,’ says Bouille, ‘isa part of the perfect one, for it does not end 
at its point of beginning; and this line is called an arc [bow |, because it 
b resembles a bow—as the line abc’ 
Hree straight and equidistant lines, contained 
between three points, make a plane figure called 
triangular because it has three angles, equilateral or 
a ¢ otherwise.* An isopleural triangle, says Bouille, is one 
which has three equal sides and is called a regular and perfect triangle 
—as abe. | 
Bserve that in this work I shall often speak of the Centric & Dia- 
metric line, & by this will be understood the line across the middle 
of the square in which will be designed all our Attic letters in their or- 
der. And the better to know and understand it, I have drawn it in the 
following form: 
Here are several other kinds of 
angles and lines, of which I say 
nothing now, referring the earnest 
student to Euclid, and to the French 
Geometry of Messire Charles Bou- 
ille, wherein he seems to me to have 
magnified & gained immortality for 
his name as much as in all his other 
books and Latin works, which he has 
written most eruditely. We havenev- 
er yetseen suchanotherauthor inthe 
French tongue. Would God that many another would do the like, not 
from contempt of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, but to go 
forward more surely in their domestic course; that is to say, to write in 
French, like Frenchmen that we are. 
I Hold in great esteem Maistre Estienne de la Roche, called de Ville 


Franche, a native of Lyons on the Rhone, who has written and des- 


cribed for us in good French the whole art of Arithmetic. I see very few 


Greeks or Latins who write of it better, more truly, or more fully, I see 


* This definition of a tri- 
angle leaves something to be 
desired, butitis asTory wrote 
it: ‘lignes. . . . equidis- 
tantes.... angles equila- 
teraulx,’ are bis phrases. 


a=Centric and 
Diametric line 


b=Perpendicular 


* Satires, v1, 187.75 


+ Quoted by Gellius from 
Cornelius Nepos. 


t It will be remembered that 
the distinétion between \ and 
J, aud between U andV, was 
not recognized until about the 
year 1600; W (double V or 
U) has even now no place in 
the French alphabet, and is 
found only in a few words 
recently borrowed from other 
languages. 


32 CHAMPSELEURY 


some who would fain write in Greek and Latin, and who are not even 
able to speak French well. When Juvenal, satiric poet, said: 


Omnia græce 
Quum sit deterius multo nescire latine, *— 


he reproved those Romans who chose to speak in Greek rather than in 
Latin. Aulus Gellius, a polished author, in chapter VIII of the eleventh : 
book of his Notles Attica,t says that Marcus Cato once derided and re- 
buked a noble Roman called Aulus Albinus, who had once been Con- 
sul, because, being a Roman, he wrote a history in Greek, and at the 
beginning thereof, begged to be forgiven if he should go astray in his 
Greek. It seems to me, under correction, that it would be much better 
for a Frenchman to write in French than in another language, as well 
for the correctness of his writing, as to give lustre to his nation & enrich 
his native tongue, which is as fair & fine as any other when it is well set 
down in writing. If we would use Greek or Latin, let us use them only 
in quotations from others, as Aulus Gellius and Macrobius do, and a 
thousand other good Latin authors, who often quote Greek in their 
Latin text, & let us write the chief of our text in good French. When I 
see a Frenchman write in Greek or in Latin, I seem to see a mason clad 
in the garb of a Philosopher or King who would fain recite a play on 
the stage of the Basoche, or in the Brotherhood of the Trinity, & who 
cannot pronounce clearly enough, as if his tongue were too thick, nor 
carry himself well, nor walk fittingly, inasmuch as his feet and legs are 
unused to walk like a Philosopher or King. 
Magine a Frenchman clad in the native garb of a Lombard,which is 
oftenest of blue cloth or sacking—methinks that that Frenchman 
would hardly enjoy himself at his ease without very soon slashing it & 
taking from it its true shape of a Lombard gown, which is not ordina- 
rily slashed, for Lombards do not often deface their property to excess. 
I leave all this to the wise discretion of scholars, & I shall not encumber 
myself with Greek or Latin, except to quote them in due time & place, 
or to speak therein with those who may not know French, or knowing 
it, do not choose to speak it. 
O Ireturn to my subject, & say that amongst Attic letters, which are 
in number twenty-three, that is to say, A, B, C, D, E, F,G, H, |, K, 
L, M,N, O, P, Q,R,S, T, V, X, Y, & Z, + there are some which are 


broader than the others. For some of them are eleven points in breadth, 


THE SECOND BOOK 33 


making ten units,as A, D, H, K, O, Q (withoutthetail),R,V,X, & Y; 
& these are as broad as they are high; that is to say, they are contained 
& drawn inan equilateral plane, divided, as I have said above, by eleven 
perpendicular lines and other eleven horizontal lines of equal length. 
I, which is our standard and most important letter in making all the 
others in their due proportions, is but three units broad at the top and 
three whole ones and two halves at the foot. A, D, H, K, O, Q (with- 
out the tail), R, V, X,Y, and Z are as broad as they are high—that is 
to say, ten units. M is thirteen units broad, which means that it has 
three units more of breadth than of height. N is eleven units broad; 
G, nine and a half; T, eight whole ones and two halves; C, nine whole 
ones; B, seven; E and L, seven and a half; P, seven whole ones; F, six 
whole ones; S, six less one fourth. The tail of the Q is four units high, 
and thirteen long. 

His letter Q is the only one of all the letters that goes below the 

lowest line, & I have never been able to find a man who could tell 
me the reason therefor; but I will tell it & set it down in writing. I have 
thought & meditated so much on the shape of these Attic letters that 
I have discovered that the Q extends below the line because he does 
not allow himself to be written in a complete word without his trusty 
comrade & brother V (U ), and to show that he wishes always to have 
him by his side, he embraces him with his tail from below, as I shall 
draw him hereafter, in his turn. Q is to be sure, sometimes placed alone, 
as an abbreviation, when it stands for Quintus, or Quintius, or some 
other like proper name of a man—or of a woman, as Quinta, or Quintia; 
and in that case, for a woman’s name, it must be turned thus, 0; asthe 
C is turned, D, when it stands for Catia. But, as I have said, in writing 
wordsat length, with all their letters, 1t always demands & joins to itself 
the said V; as we see in these words: Quot, quotus, quoties, quando, 
aliquando, quatuor, quinque, quinquaginta, and numberless other like 
words, not in Latin alone, but in French; as who should say quant, qui 
esset, c’est quelcun, c’est Quentin de la rue de Quiquempoit. Priscian, 
an author of great repute in olden times, says in his first book,* wherein 
he treats of the qualities of letters, that Q must always be followed by 
V to show that the said V loses its force & its sound when written before 
a vowel in the same syllable; but he does not say why it hasa tail below 
the line of all the other letters. However, I forgive him; for he does not 
teach how to write logically or by measure, but only the proper position 


* Chapter 1v. 


* May 2, 1519. 


+ See pp.6 and 7 of Dürer s 
‘Of the Just Shaping of Let- 


ters.’ The Grolier Club,1917. 


t Idem, p.30. 


§ Idem, p.9. 


34 CHAMP FLEURY 


of the letters one after another in orthography. The said Priscian’s 
words are as follows: Q vero propter nihil aliud scribenda videtur esse, nist 
ut ostendat sequens V ante alteram vocalem in eadem syllaba positum | posi- 
tam | perdere vim literee in metro. That is to say, the letter Q is written for 
no other purpose than to show that the letter V following loses its value 
in metrical quantity when it stands before another vowel. 


Fe ere Lucas Paciol of Bourg Sainct Sepulchre, of the order of Freres 
Mineurs, and a theologian, who has written in vulgar Italian a book 
entitled Divina ‘Proportione,-® & who has essayed to draw the Attic let- 
ters, says nothing about them, nor gives explanations; & I am not sur- 
prised, for I have heard from some Italians that he purloined the said 
letters from the late Messire Leonardo da Vinci, who died recently 
at Amboise,* and who wasa most excellent philosopher and admirable 
painter, and, as it were, another Archimedes. This Frere Lucas has had 
Leonardo’s Attic Letters printed as his own. In truth, they may well be 
his, for he has not drawn them in their proper proportions, as I shall 
show hereafter in treating of the said letters in their order. Nor does 
Sigismund Fante, a noble Ferrarian, who teaches how to write many 
sorts of letters, give explanations; & the like is true of Messire Ludovico 
Vincentino.?7 I do not know whether Albert Dürer explains his theo- 
ries; but, however that may be, he has gone astray in the proper pro- 
portions of the designs of many letters in his book on Perspective.28 


S, in the first place, on leaf XX XII*t of that book, the horizontal 
cross-piece of the A is not broad enough; nor is the top of the let- 
ter properly drawn in its curves; for in one of his A’s he has drawn the 
top curved forward, in another, curved back, and in a third as the apex 
of a pyramid, all of which are contrary to reason, according to the true 
antique design. However, on leaf XL: the first A is more sensible than 
any of those that precede, or than the two following ones, as those per- 
sons can see who have, or who may choose to have and see what I say of 
his book heretofore cited. 


On his leaf XX XIIIS the first B is better than the second, because in 
the second the upper loop is too small and the lower too large. The two 
white ones on leaf XX XII§ and the four on leaf XLi are all faulty, 


also, in the horizontal line of the lower half. 


THE SECOND BOOK 35 


On the same leaf, the four C’s, both white & black, are much too round 
and too nearly closed. On leaf XL,* however, the third black C is better 
than the two before it, except that the upper end should be perpen- 
dicular. 


On leaf XX XIII t the white D’s & the two black ones have the line 
at the foot too thin; so, too, all four on leaf XL.* ~ 


On leaves XX XIIIIt and XLS the white and the black E are faulty 
in respect to the middle arm,which should rest on the diametrical line. 
In like manner the F also is faulty ; for the foot of the said F is too long 
and too thin. 


So, too, with the L, which is derived from the E. 


On the same leaves XX XIII and XLS the G is too nearly closed, & 
in the first one the short limb is too long, in the second it is too short; 
and in the three others also. 


On leaves XXX Vand XLS, in the aspirate (1), the cross-piece is 


too thin. 
In the I the foot is too narrow by one unit. 


In the first K, in black and white, the junction between the two sloping 
arms is too high, for it should be exactly on the centre line. The second 


black K is good. 


The first M & the second, white and black alike, are faulty. The third 
black one is good. The last on leaf XLI* is the worst of all. 


All the N’s on leaves XXXVI and XLI* are faulty at the upper end 
of the first limb, except the third and the sixth. And all have the heel 
[of the second limb ] cut square,4 after the style of Bramante, as he has 
drawn it in the galleries of Pope Julius the Second, between the Palace 
of Saint Peter at Rome & the Belvedere. But some very ancient writers 
made this heel with a sharp point. Do you make it as it shall seem best 
to you. : 


* Grolier (lub ed., p.30. 


+ Idem, pp.11 and 12. 


t Idem, p.13. 
§ Idem, p.31. 


| Idem, p.14. 


{| Idem, p.15. 


À Idem, p.32. 


1 Idem, p.20. 


À “Talon coupe.’ See draw- 
ing of the letter N in “Book 111 
infra, for a better understand- 
ing of this phrase. 


* That is, circular. 


+ ‘Meslongue.’I find no trace 
of this word, and connect it 
with ‘melon’ by fer conjec- 
ture. 


t Grolier (lub ed. p.27. 


36 CHAMP FLEURY 
Allthe O’s are faulty; for they should all be round, with a uniform cir- 


cumference,* and not oval or melon-shaped.t 
All the P’s are good enough. 


All the Q’sare altogether wrong, as well in the upper part (as Ihave said 
of the O’s) as in the tail, which is too thin & not properly proportioned. 


The R’s are good. 


The S’s are faulty, for the openings are too much closed, or rounded, 


both the upper and the lower, and the body is ill-shaped. 
On leaf XX XVII the white T and the black are faulty and irregular; 


for the upper line should be everywhere equidistant from the lowerline. 
And the third T, which is not at fault in this respect, is not cut as it 
should be, for the first arm should be perpendicular & the last ee 


inclined; and this is just the opposite. 
The V is very good. 


The X is too open above. 
The Y is good. 


The Z is faulty, for the lower line should be longer than the upper. The 
first end of this upper line should be perpendicular, and the other end, 
a half-unit in length, also perpendicular. The lower line should be in- 
clined, as in the last three and the first. 


E can forgive the said Albert Diirer, inasmuch as his vocation 

was painting, and it rarely happens that painters are good gram- 
marians in the matter of understanding the qualities & proportions of 
well-formed letters. I know no man who makes or understands them bet- 
ter than Maistre Simon Hayeneufve, otherwise called Maistre Simon 
du Mans.29 He makes them so well & of such admirable proportions, 
that he contents the eye as well as, yes, better than any Italian master on 
either side of the mountains. He is most eminent in the disposition of 
ancient architecture, as one may see in a thousand fine drawings & pic- 
tures that he has made in the noble city of Le Mans & in many foreign 
cities, He is worthy to be kept in fragrant memory, as well for his up- 


PHP SuGOND BOOK 37 


right life as for his great learning. And therefore, let us without pretence 
consecrate and dedicate his name to immortality, declaring him to be 
a second Vitruvius, a holy man & good Christian. I write this gladly be- 
cause of the great virtues & goodly qualities that I have heard ascribed 
to him by many good men, of high and low degree, and true lovers of 
all excellent and honourable things. Would God that France had ten 
_ like him: then never was Egypt or Greece or Italy so eminent in archi- 
tecture as she would be. I know no author, Greek, or Latin, or French, 
who gives such an explanation of the letters as I have given; wherefore 
I may hold it for my own, saying that I have excogitated it & discovered 
it rather by divine inspiration than by what I have seen written or have 
heard. If there be any who has seen it in writing, let him so say, and he 
will give me pleasure. 
LL our Attic letters should be & are of a height contained between 
two equidistant lines, as is the circle of the letter Q; but its tail, as 
I have said, goes below the line, to embrace its friend and loving com- 
panion V. 
if Would here set down another conception of my own, and that is the 
reason why I choose to divide each square in which we shall draw our 
three-and-twenty letters into ten units of height and likewise into ten 
of breadth. It is to point out that the ancients wished to signify, covertly, 
that the nine Muses, & Apollo,who makes the tenth, are held in honour 
and sought out by well-made letters, whose appearance depends upon 
their proper and harmonious proportions. Lucian, in his Dialogue Tz- 
mon, near the end, has in mind these nine Muses when he introduces 
the philosopher Thrasicles saying that he drank only of the fountain 
at Athens that discharged through nine pipes. ‘Porro, he says, potum fons 
Athenis nouem saliens venis suppeditat3° Truly, he says, the fountain at 
Athens that discharges through nine pipes furnishes the philosopher 
Thrasicles with drinking water. 
Ae D so I show here the said nine Muses and their Apollo arranged 
symmetrically according to our standard and model letter I. And 
if you find aught that is pleasing therein, I beg that you will be grateful 
to me; & ifnot, then I beg that you will forgive me. For, while studying, 
Icannot refrain from ever imagining some new thing, thinking to give 
honour & assistance to other students, and to advance the public weal. 
I leave others to think as they will,and devote myself tothe Muses and 
well-formed letters. 


38 CHAMP FLEURY 


Bserve in this figure how the 
arrangement is governed by 


number and measure, as well in the las — 
horizontal as in the perpendicular poe Ne. 
lines; to show that the proper use of 


all sorts of knowledge comes chiefly te 
Ge 10: 
through letters, whether by divine [= "Exaile do. 
inspiration,whichissignified bythe 
perpendicular line, or by persistent 
diligence & hard study, which is sig- 
nified by the medial horizontal line. 
In this figure I have placed the nine Muses according tothe orderwhich 
Martianus Capella3t gives, well aware that Fulgentius Placiades,32 in 
the thirteenth chapter of the first book of his Enarrationes Allegorica, 
arranges them otherwise, as may be seen by whoever cares to amuse him- 
self by reading him in the above-mentioned place. The nine Muses were 
created by the ancients to signify covertly as many methods for those 
who seek to acquire knowledge. As is most happily & clearly set down 
in the thirty-ninth chapter of the book called The Game of Chess, in the 
following words. ‘There is, then, this order to be observed in acquiring 
knowledge: firstly, there must needs be a firm resolution to acquire 
knowledge ; secondly, one must take pleasure therein; thirdly, one must 
persevere constantly, without any great interval; fourthly, one must learn 
thoroughly the things whereon one’s mind is fixed; fifthly, one must 
keep and hold in memory the things learned; sixthly, one must add to 
one’s knowledge, & invent something 
new; seventhly, one must study and 
judge the sentences invented and di- 
gested, and then call out the best and 
let the others go. And, lastly, after all 
this one must make use of the know- 
ledge acquired, and teach others by 
means of fine language and excellent 
method.’ 
if HAVE not yet forgot, God be 
praised, that I have said that all our 
Attic letters are formed from the I, 


and from the O, which is itself made 


A trem 


THE SECOND BOOK 39 


from the said I. [have arranged the nine Muses & Apollo around the I. 
I propose in like manner to arrange the seven Liberal Arts, not around 
the O, but within it, as you can see in the figure I have drawn here. I 
make these two diagrams the better to confirm what I have written 
above, and to show how the good Ancients were so virtuous that they 
were desirous to establish in the designs of their letters all perfection 
and harmony, as well without as within the said letters—that is to say, 
as well when written apart by themselves, as when fixed in the memory 
of good men. The curved outline which you observe in the O, and the 
way in which it is set in its square, signify that the seven liberal Arts, 
enshrined in our memory, must be practised by the constant revolving 
of the books and instruments adapted thereto. Our memory is always 
as easily set in motion as the wheel of a mill or of a clock, and it must 
always be driven by the stream of Dame Diligence and aided by the 
counterpoise of labour. By the square—the figure hereinbefore called 
an equilateral superficies or plane—is understood Atrempence,* wherein 
is the seat of our said memory, which of its nature desires only to exer- 
cise itself in the seven Liberal Arts & other goodly matters; wherefore 
I have written at the four corners of the square, the four syllables of 
Atrempence. But I must not fail to say here that the Ancients by this 
square understood Dame Mvipocuvu, Mnemosyne, which is as much as 
to say in Latin, Memoria, & in French, Memoire. According to Hesiod 
this lady is called the mother of the nine Muses; + that is to say, that 
they are nourished by Memory, as are also the seven Liberal Arts writ- 
ten in the drawing. Mvx-uo-ou-vx, too, is written in four syllables, which 
may in like manner, according to the meaning of the Ancients, signify 
the four corners of the square, at which one could write the said four 
syllables, as I have done with —4trempence. And, the better to reconcile 
them, Memory and Moderation are so near akin that one cannot be 
without the other. A giddy-pated man, lacking moderation, seldom has 
any memory, as we learn every day by experience. And, on the other 
hand, a sober-minded & moderate man is ordinarily more memorative 
than another & of more acute understanding. For which reason, there- 
fore, the roundness & motion of the nine Musesand seven Liberal Arts 
consist in perfect memory, which is divinely represented in this draw- 
ing of the O, and in its square, heretofore-drawn. 

Must not omit to tell here a fine riddle of Virgil’s, in his second Ec- 

logue, called ‘Alexis, to show that harmony finds its way into letters 


* See the four corners of the 
drawing. This word, usual- 
ly written ‘-Attrempance,’ 
means temperance, modera- 
tion. 


+ Theogony, 54. 


* Eclogues, 11, 36. 


+ Æneid, 1, 94. 


40 CHAMPIRCEURT 


& sciences, which is signified in the seven Liberal Arts; for they blend 
in perfect accord, as do accordant notes in music. Virgil says, in the per- 


son of the Shepherd Corydon:— 


Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis 
Fistula, Dameetas dono mihi quam dedit olim.* 


‘T have,’ he says, ‘a flageolet with seven holes, an odd number, which Da- 
mectas lately gave me.’ By the flageolet, which is long and round and 
well proportioned, may be meant our two letters, I and O, and by the 
seven holes, the seven Liberal Arts, which I have written and arranged 
above. We see commonly that on the upper side of a flageolet there 
are seven holes arranged side by side; 
but underneath these is one, for the 
thumb, which, with the seven Liberal 
Arts, represents Apollo. And further- 
more, for still greater harmony, we see 
also in the flageolet another hole, hard 
by the farther end, which makes the 
ninth, and represents the perfect ac- 
complishment of the union between 
the nine Muses and the seven Liberal 


Arts. And if you would again find Cree 
; : Apollo 

Apollo with the nine Muses, the hole rire 
ialettica 

near the mouth piece,where the notes 

of all the other holes unite to make a Rhode 

single note, will signify the said Apollo. 

See, therefore, how in shapely letters Geometria 

the worthy Ancients made use of even she ea 

and odd numbers, as Virgil did in the Ar GES 

first book of his Æneid,when he said: ye | 

ronomia 


O terque quaterque beati! 7 


HEY made use of them, I say, 
did the worthy Ancients, under- 
standing thereby, secretly, the seven 
Liberal Arts & the nine Muses, with | 
their Apollo. I have drawn here the flageolet of Virgil, the better to 
put before your eyes the truth of what I say and of my arguments. 


Musica 


DHE SECOND BOOK 


Ere follows the said flageolet as 
Virgil understood it, and as his 
commentators have notunderstood it; 
or, at least, if they have, they have 
made no mention of it,as any one can 
see [from what they say] as to the 
verses quoted, I do not say it to boast, 
but I have excogitated it in this wise, 
& studiously worked it out, for I find 
no man who can tell me this that I 
have conceived about it. Here, again, 
it is applied to the nine Muses, to the 
end that I may, if I can, satisfy both; 
and the figure will be like this that 
follows. 
hither even go further and make 
of the divine flageolet of Virgil an 
allegorical representation of our said 
letter I, upon which all others are 
based, and likewise of the O; and I 
will show that our triumphal words, 
IO, 1O, are found therein, in all sym- 


metry and harmony. 


HE figure of the I, and the flage- 

olet,comprising the seven Liberal 
Arts, isas follows. Observe in this fig- 
ure, O yenoble and devoted lovers of 
well-formed letters, the truth of my 
words, and the divine intelligence of 
Virgil, king of all good Latin poets & 
philosophers, & that what I have here- 
tofore quoted from the said Virgil is 
meant to refer covertly to the science 
and knowledge of letters, all of which 


take their proportion and form from 


Apollo 


AI 


Grammatica 
Dialeltica 
Rhetorica 
Geometria 
Arithmetica 
Astronomia 
Musica 


the I, in which I have drawn for you the saidflageolet with seven holes, 
that is to say, containing in harmonious accord the seven Liberal Arts. 


42 CHAMP FLEURY 


ND see next how I have also designed and drawn the same I and 
the flageolet containing the nine Muses. You can now employ 

it at your pleasure, and understand al- 
legorically all the good reasons and 
pleasant things that I have hereinbe- 7 Apollo 
fore set down for you. I am not yet, 
God be praised, weary, noram I averse 
to say more, the better to confirm my 
words and my arguments, whereby to 
come at last to our triumphal cry, IO. 
I propose to find for you the O, as I 
have found the I, in the flageolet of 
Virgil, & to portray it as well as I can. 
Although it is a very difficult thing to draw in proper perspective the 
lower end of a flageolet, which is round when one looks at it frontwise, 
and to perceive its length and breadth if one sees it in a straight line, 
none the less, albeit Iam not a good painter, yet will I, with our Lords 
help, make some little thing which may advantage those who are ear- 
nest studentsand desirous to learn. But, before I go further, Iwould fain 
show that it is not without good cause that I have heretofore adapted 
the nine Muses to the proportions of the I; & to that end I say that the 
ancient fathers, Greek and Latin alike, to indicate the ideas I have set 
down above concerning the said I, made it the ninth letter in the order 

* Or, as we should say, Beta. of lettersin the alphabet, as you can see by repeating Alpha, Vita,* Gam- 

Ÿ Zeta, Eta, Theta. ma, Delta, Epsilon, Zita, Ita, Thita,+ Iota; that is to say, A, B, I’, A, E, Z, 
H, 0, I. And in Latin, A, Be, Ce, De, E, Ef, Ge, Ah, I; or, written thus: 
A,B,C, D, E, F, G, H, I. Wherefore it will be well for good readers to 
pay close heed thereto, and not contemn the subtle and secret fantasy 
and the sage opinion of the good Ancients. Now, let us pass on, & come 
to our other letter, which we have already more than once, & with good 
reason, called O Triumphant. 


—— Polymnia 
——— Melpomene 
Erato 
—— Terpsichore 


Euterpe Thalia 


ee and pretend that youare seated ina place of study, and that, 
on the table before you, you see a flageolet lying, and that you are 
looking at the lower end, as it were in a straight line: you will find that 
the end will represent an O lying on its side, as if it were beginning to 
move and turn like a wheel, The which to make you understand more 
easily, I have drawn it here as well as I could, and I beg you to take the 


THE SECOND BOOK 43 


invention in good part. I say invention, because I have found noauthor, 
Greek or Latin or French, who has written or drawn these things as I 
have now done. I make them only the better to set forth the meaning, 
the secret, and the allegory of the Ancients, and to give instruction and 
point the way to the moderns, & to lovers of true, pure, & well-formed 
letters. The drawing I have promised is this that follows. 


Pe 
Bo peche Se 
et ie 


hy... 
| 
Musica - 
Geometria: 


Dialectica 


HE better to maintain my cause, I will say and prove that our said 

Attic letters were so well fashioned by the Ancients that they have 
the proportions of the human body, The man well and symmetrically 
formed” has in him the nine Muses & seven Liberal Arts in due pro- 
portion, as I have heretofore said of our two divine letters, I & O. And 
to make it more clearly to be understood, I have drawn, below, a human 
body according to my poor understanding. Iam not unaware that Vi- 
truvius, prince of writers on architecture and buildings, has most thor- 
oughly examined and measured the said human body, as may be seen 
in the first chapter of Book ITI of his De Architectura, wherein he speaks 
De sacrarum adium compositione et symmetri]s, et corporis humani mensura; 
that is to say, ‘Of the construction and proportions of churches, and of 
the measurement of the human body.’ But in this place I shall fix its 
proportions so exactly that I shall find space and room therein for the 
seven Liberal Arts and the nine Muses, as I have done hereinbefore in 
our two letters I and O. The great painters and sculptors of times past 


* Lhomme bien forme à 


quadre. 


* Book Vu, 759. 


44 CHAMP FLEURY 


measured man and divided him into ten parts, as I havealready divided 
our two letters; and that this is true, Vitruvius says in the passage cited: 
Corpus enim hominis ita Natura composuit, vti os capitis a mento ad frontem 
summan et radices imas capilli esset decime partis. Nature, he says, has so 
constituted the human body that the space occupied by the face, which 
extends from the chin to the [top of the head and the] roots of the hair, 
is the tenth part of the body. The same Vitruvius, a little further on, 
again divides the human body into six parts, of the size of its foot, when 
he says: ‘Pes vero est altitudinis corporis sexta. The foot of a man, he says, is 
the sixth part of his body. Martianus Capella, in his seventh book,where 
he speaks “De Heptade, divides the body of man into seven parts, when 
he says Item septem corporis partes hominem perficiunt.* Item, he says, man 
is comprised in seven parts. I will pass by the division into six parts, 
which is known to all, and will pause at that into seven parts, and ten; 
that is to say, the seven Liberal Arts, and the nine Muses with their in- 


spirer Apollo, 


Ewill, therefore, following Vitruvius, make a square, divided as 

before, that is, into ten units of breadth and as many of height, 
which said breadth & height of ten units are contained between eleven 
lines in each direction; & within this square shall be drawn a man with 
arms outstretched and feet close together, as follows. 


fine figure shows clearly 


that our said Attic letters 
and the human body accord 
closely in their proportions, 
in so far that in one and the 
same square they can be com- 
prised & drawn with Apollo 
and the nine Muses,whoare 
placed within the ten equal 
units of space into which the 
surface of the said square is 
divided. There is an Enigma—that is, a saying of which the meaning 
is hidden—made long ago in Latin by some shrewd wit whose name 
isunknown, which informs us that all natural things are made by num- 
ber and by measure. It is as follows:— ; 


Apollo 
Urania 
Calliope 
Polymnia 
Melpomene 
Clio 

Erato 
Terpischore 
Euterpe 
Thalia . 


THE SECOND BOOK 45 


Confestum * est numeris quicquid natura creauit, 
Ter tria sunt septem, septem sex, sex quoque sunt tres. 
Si numeres recte, sunt bis tria, milia quinque. 


I Might leave this enigma & its obscure words for the curious to nibble 
at, in order to discover the things hidden therein; but to keep them 
from over-tiring their brain, I will come to their aid. It has another 
meaning than appears on its face; it refers to the orthography and the 
number of letters contained in these words: #er, tria, septem, sex, bis,and 
milia. It says, Ter tria sunt septem, which is to say, that in these two Latin 
words, rer & tria, there are seven letters,as who should say: In his duabus 
dittionibus ter et tria, sunt septem, scilicet elementa. In the word septem, sunt 
sex, scilicet elementa : in the word septem there are six letters, And in like 
manner, in the word sex there are three letters; and in bis three letters, 
and in milia five letters; all of which is true, and quite evident. It does 
not mean that fer tria sint septem, that is, that three times three are sev- 
en, for that would not be true; but, as I have said, it refers to the number 
of letters contained in the particular words set down. Let us then take 
the first verse cited above, to return to our subject, and let us say : Con- 
festum est numeris quicquid natura creauit. Every natural thing is, and is 
contained in, number, and this number is even & odd, as we can clearly 
perceive in the face of man & in his members; for of some the number 
is odd, as the head, the nose, the mouth, the chin, the navel, the organ 
of generation, and divers others, which I omit for brevity’s sake. There 
are, as I have said, some of which the number is even, as the two eyes, 
the ears, the arms, the hands, in which hands also there are even & odd 
numbers, as the five fingers of one hand, and the ten fingers of two. All 
these things are too many to set down one after another; wherefore, re- 
turning to my subject, I say that our letters are so well and naturally 
proportioned that, after the likeness of the human body, they are com- 
posed of members, that is to say, of a number of points & lines equally 
and unequally divided, as I have already shown; & that there are some 
of XIII units of breadth, some of X, some of VIII, some of VII, some 
of VI, and some of III; and this we shall see, with our Lord’s assistance, 
by thenext figure. 
Oy a square which is of the size of our aforementioned Attic letters I 
have drawn a man with his arms extended to the outermost lines of 
the said square, & with his feet close together & extended to the lower- 


* Query, ‘confectum’ ? 


46 CHAMP FLEURY 


most line of said square; and in the divisions between the lines I have 
placed Apollo and the nine Muses. It seems to me now to be well, and 
not without good reason, that I should draw the human body in har- 
mony with Apollo and the seven Liberal Arts, the better to show forth 
the perfection, not only of the said human body, but of our divine Attic 
letters. The figure, as I have drawn it, follows. 


N this figure you 
see the man with 
feet & hands extend- 
ed to equal lengths, 
& touching the four 
corners of the lesser 
square, for at those 
points the circle and 
the square join. The 
central point of the 
man thus drawn is the navel; but the central point of the other man, 
whose arms only are extended, and whose feet are close together, is in 
the middle of the groin just above the organ of generation. The reason 
why Ihave adapted the seven Liberal Arts tothe man with feet & hands 
extended, rather than the nine Muses, is that the said Liberal Arts are 
more concerned with bodily exercise than are the nine Muses, who are 
celestial and divine persons, wherein the mind is more active than the 
body. And fora like reason I find that students, and they who give more 
serious thought to the qualities & the nature of things, make a distinc- 
tion between the goddess Pallas and Minerva, saying that Pallas is the 
Goddess & Queen of all Knowledge, 
& Minerva of the Artsalone, in which 
according to the etymology, that 1s 
to say, the true interpretation, of Mi- 
nerva,— Que dicitur a minuendis ner- 
uis33—our limbs &nerves grow weak 
by dint of the violent exercise that is 
required therein. 
Urthermore, the man whose feet 
are close together toucheswith his 
head the topmost line of his square, 


aes COON DY BOOK 47 


to signify that the Muses & Sciences are, as I have said, celestial things, 
to which one cannot attain without exalted contemplation. The man 
reduced in height by having his legs and arms extended, has his head 
much below the topmost line of the square, to show that the seven Lib- 
eral Arts do not require such lofty contemplation as the Muses and 
Sciences, but are of middling importance, and more easily understood. 


if Cannot refrain from repeating our aforementioned shout of tri- 
umph, IO, IO, the more abundantly to establish my words & reasons 
already set forth, & to show that our Attic letters, which, as I have said, 
are all made from the I and the O, are so well conformed to nature that 
they agree in measurement and proportion with the human body; and 
to make this the more clearly understood, I put before the eyes of all 
well-wishing lovers of knowledge the following figures, first of the I & 
then of the O. 
he this figure we can see that what I have hereinbefore called the unit, 
to indicate the thickness of the shaft of the I, is equal to the thickness 
of the head of the human body,which 1. pees F 
is a tenth part thereof. I have said also HR A Se | 
that the [hasthree units of breadth | XU rave 
at the top, that is to say, one unit for | LR VPS 
its main portion & two for its two ears, | 
which makes three units. Atthe foot — 7 
there are three units and two halves, © - Ro | 


following the law of nature, which Se 
says that man standing erect on his |] NI 
feet occupies more space with his feet he FD 
than with his head. We can easily AC 
understand that a man erect on his feet must have them a little apart, 
otherwise he could not stand firm. It is very evident that a pyramid 
stands more firm when it rests upon the broader end than if it were set 
contrariwise. So, fora like reason, our I must be broader at the base than 
at the top, and this, as I have said, by the width of a unit, which is cut in 
two, a half-unit being placed on each side of the foot. It remains now to 
draw the human body within the O, to make clear what we have said 
above as to the lesser square, and to show that the centre of this O will 
be found exactly at the centre of the man drawn therein, which is shown 
in manner following. 


48 CHAMP FLEURY 
HE man in this figure, with feet and hands extended to equal dis- 


tances, & the O, meet in the square, in the circle, and in the centre, 


which betokens the perfectionofthe \|_, 
MOLES... 


human body & the said O, since the 
CA Z 


circle isthe most perfect ofall figures 2 
À 
Ne 7 


2 


& the most comprehensive. The rec- 
tangular figure is the most stable and 
solid, especially when it isa cube, that 


is to say, having six faces, like dice. 


ns 


_—————— 


' 


ll 


Mustnotomittoshow, bya figure + 

adapted to our said Attic letters, — 
how the man with arms extended & 
standing erect on his feet, and having his centre, not in the navel, like 
the last one drawn within the O, but in the groin, is a very clear demon- 
stration of the way to know the precise spot to make the cross-stroke & 
the joint (brisewre) in the letters which require them—namely, A, B, E, 
PF, H,K,P, R, X, Y. For brevity’s sake, I do not give a figure or example 
of all of them, one after the other, but of three only—A, H, and K: 


( 


Je lower edge of the transvetes mé 
stroke of the letter À here drawn | | Lg 


is properly placed below the central EE 7 


horizontal line of its square, & below + + jl LM 


the groin of the man drawn therein. 
All other letters which have a cross- | ae TA À ae 


stroke ora joint have it above the said 
horizontal line. But this letter A, be- 
cause it is closed above & shaped like 
a pyramid, requires its said transverse 
stroke to be lower than the central 
line. Thus this cross-stroke covers the man’s organ of generation, to sig- 
nify that Modesty and Chastity are required, before all else, in those 
who seek acquaintance with well-shaped letters, of which A is the gate- 
way and the first of all in alphabetical order. 


HE aspirate [H J, then, has its cross-stroke on the central line, just 
over the groin of the human body, to show us that our said Attic 


THE SECOND BOOK 49 


lettersneed to be so logically made that they may be conscious in them- 
selves, instinctively, of all due proportion and of the art of architecture, 
which requires that the body of a pal- 


h hall be higher f: ET doen | 
ace or a house shall be higher from = ETES 


its foundation to its roof than is the 
roof itself, which represents the head 
of the whole house. If the roof of a 
house is too much higher than the 
body, the thing is misshapen, unless 
in the case of markets and barns, the 
roof of which begins, for the most 
part, near the ground, toavoid the vi- 
olence of high winds & earthquakes. 
So, too, our letters do not choose to fear the wind of envious backbiters, 
desiring to be built stoutly, & to be broken,*as I have said, above their 
central horizontal line, save only the A, which has its cross-stroke just 
beneath that line. 


ye can see in the letter here drawn how the joint of the letter K 
is at the point of contact with the line passing through the centre 
of the human body with its feet to- 
gether, which centre, as I have con- 
stantly said, isat the groin, The joint 
of the other letters, which forthe mo- 
ment 1 omit to draw, relegating them 
to their alphabetical order, will al- 
ways be found to be placed upon the 


said central horizontal line. 


of the aspirate, that our Attic let- 
ters should havea savour of architecture. And it is true; for A represents 
__ the gable end of a house, inasmuch as it is shaped like a gable. The as- 
pirate H represents the body of the house, for the part below the cross- 
stroke, which I have called the central horizontal line, is placed there to 
form lower halls and chambers; and the part above the said line is to 
form in like manner upper halls, or large and middle-sized rooms. The 
K, because of its joint, signifies stairs to ascend in a straight line to the 


I Said but now, when I was treating 


* “Brisées, that is, to have 
the ‘briseure.’ 


50 


CHAMBGLEURT 


first floor, & thence 

to ascend, also in a 

straight line, to an- 

| other floor. Thean- 
cients, for the most part, built their stairways only ina straight 
line, as one can still see in many places, and as I have observed 
in Rome and throughout Italy ; in Languedoc also, and many 
other places. If we seek among our letters a presentation of 
another sort of stairway and stairs, that is,a spiral stairway, in 

which wetwist about 

thecentreand shaft 

of said spiral, the I 

andthe OandtheS 

will give usa singu- 

lar likeness thereof, 

by reason of the I, 

which is a straight 

perpendicular line, 

& representing the 

shaft of the spiral, and the 
O, which is the circle, and the S the 
winding ascent of the stairs, which thing can be 
well seen and easily understood by the following figure. 


THE SECOND BOOK Lt 
a we demand ground plans in our said Attic letters, we shall find 


enough for galleries, for halls, and for theatres, which are called in 
France arenas *, and for Coliseums. 
TheI may representa plan fora long 
straight gallery, of uniform size,and 
whose long face looks to the east or 
the north. The L for halls & rooms 
which should have the longer side 
with their backs to the south, & the 
shorter side, which we call the foot 
of the L, facing the east, which is the 
healthiest situation of all by reason of 
the back being turned to the south 
wind, which is pestilential as well to human bodies as to inanimate 
bodies, and by reason of the long front which receives in its face the 
wind from the north, which is pure and clean & brisk, by reason of the 
short front within the foot of the said letter L, whereinto the beauti- 
ful rising sun peers at dawn, and there remains during most part of 
the day, instilling sweetness; which thing I have here shown ina figure 
and drawing for the better understanding thereof, and to put it before 
the eyes of good students. 


Say this in passing, because I find that few of those persons who build 

in the country know how to place their buildings philosophically, 
that is to say, scientifically & properly, albeit they have abundant space 
at their command. In cities, where often, by reason of the hereditary 
partitions that are made from day to day, spaces are restricted, one 
must build according to the street 
and according to the locality, butin _ 
the country one must use judgement 
that accords with nature & with the 
health of the human body. Whoso 
would have ampler knowledge here- 
of, let him read in Vitruvius, an au- 
thor most learned in this matter, & 
in Leo Baptiste Albert, philosopher 
among modern scholars. The figure _= 


of the L as a floor plan is as follows. 


* Avene: “A Theatre for 
Fencers; a place to jougs in, 


_strowed with gravell, and 


hence was that stately. Am- 
phitheatre of Nismes called 
des -Arenes.’— COTGRAVE. 


+ ‘Patte.’ 


52 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE ground plan of the theatre, as I saw one ina city on the Rhone 
near Avignon, called Aurenges, which has its facade, that is tosay 
its front face, flat, and its rear face round, can be very well observed in 
the letter D, of which the upright limb will represent the said front 
face, looking toward the north, & the rear, which is rounded, will have 
its back to the south. The plan of the Coliseum, which I have seen a 
thousand timesat Rome, is very manifest and apparent in the O, seeing 
that the said Coliseum, when it was whole, was circular on the outside 
and oval-shaped within. I could say many other things on this subject, 
but for brevity’s sake I will pass them by, and will go on to show how 
our said Attic letters agree in the number of units of their breadth, ac- 
cording to the rules of perspective, as the cube drawn below will make 
clear to us. 
[ Have said before that A is ten units in height and ten in breadth; F, 
six in breadth; & I three at the top; which said A, F, and I, are here 
shown in squares and 
in perspective, so that 
we can, in this present 
figure, recognize the 
manifest perfection of 
ourAtticletters,which 
accord so well one with 
another that they ob- 
serve & maintain sym- 
metrical proportions. I 
could harmonize thus 
all the other letters, but 
I leave them for keen 
mindstoexercisethem- 
selves upon if it shall please them so to do. 
Y God’s grace, I have hereinabove adapted to the human body, as 
well as I might, our two fundamental & triumphal letters, I & O, 
also A, H,and K. I purpose further, asa reminder & allegory of the four 
Cardinal Virtues, which are Justice, Strength, Prudence,and Modera- 
tion, to adapt them to the head & face of the human body, which I shall 
divide into four units only, ever to persevere in the most ample demon- 
stration of the divine symmetry of our said Attic letters. First, then, we 
will take an equilateral rectangle and we will divide it into four equal 


THE SECOND BOOK 53 


parts; then we will draw therein a human face alone for the first dem- 
onstration, and will write & place at the four corners, to mark the said 
four parts, the four Cardinal Virtues, 
to show that our Attic letters abide 
perfectly in atruesquare,* whichcon- 
sists in length and height. 

T TIC letters, that they may be 


thoroughly designed & made, T. 
require, through Justice, careful at- ES Je 


tention to their height & breadth, ac- cr Wi 
cording to their shape; through Pru- 
dence, the use of rule and compasses; TT 
through Force, a constant and obsti- aN. 
nate persistence in dividing & meas- 
uring them & giving them their due Force Moderation 
proportions; through Moderation, a certain discretion in placing them 
between the two chief equidistant linesand in setting them at a proper 
distance from each other, as shall seem meet. 

Bserve, in this figure, divided into four parts, how the human face 

adapts itself to the division, & the division to it. The pupil of the 
eyes, placed upon the central horizontal line, proves to us what I have 
said above, that every letter having a joint should have it exactly upon 
the said central line, and not elsewhere. 

Pon this face, between the eyes, along the nose, & over the mouth, 

let us draw our model triumphal I, in order to make clearer our 
arguments, already several times hereinbefore written. 

Hrewd minds can perceive at this 
point the divine imagination of 

the Ancients, who chose to make their 
model letter as long as from the top- 
most line of the square to the nether- 
most, and from the summit of the 
human face to the base of the chin, 
& imagined it between the two eyes, — 
duly proportioned; justas the nose, in 
a well-formed man, is the measure of 
the whole body, its dimensions being 


Justice Prudence 


multiplied according toa fixed rule. I say furthermore, that the I,which : 


*<En certaine quadrature.’ 


* Metamorphoses 1, 76. 


T 1, 84. 


54 CHAMP FLEURY 


is perpendicular, set thus between the two eyes, signifies that we must 
hold our face upraised toward heaven, there to behold our Creator, and 
to contemplate the great benefitsand knowledge that He bestows onus. 
And, to prove that it is true that God wills that we have our gaze turned 
always heavenward, He has given us our heads upraised, and the beasts 
theirs bowed down. Ovid, a poet of olden time, not a Christian and, 
none the less, a great Philosopher, held this opinion when, in the first 
book of his Metamorphoses, after he has described in elegant terms the 
Creation of the world, desiring also to describe in his poetic style the 
Creation of Man, he says:— 3 


Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ 
Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari cætera posset, 
Natus homo est, siue hunc diuino semine fecit 
Ile opifex rerum mundi melioris origo.* 


And, a little farther on:— 


Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram, 
Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque videre 
lussit, et erectos ad sydera tollere vultus.t 


That ts to say: In addition to these things which I have described, the 
creation of Man remained, which Man was to hold sway over all other 
created things, Therefore, the great Creator of the world makes him to 
be born in such wise that all the brute beasts shall bend their heads and 
their gaze to the ground, and he shall have his head and face upraised 
toward heaven. 

HE human face andthe O in the 

next figure are so in accord that 
we can see therein how the worthy An- 
cients conceived the idea that, as the 


circle is the most comprehensive and — y= =: o> 
perfect of all figures, so the head of Win 
man, which is almost circular, is more 


capable of reasoning and imagination D 
than all the rest of the natural body. Ne A D)” 
y (a \ C0 
Also, the human head contains more 
of sensuality and force than any other part of the body, seeing that it 
has within it seven channels and sources of vital spit corresponding 


THE SECOND, BOOK 55 


to the seven Liberal Arts. These channels are the two Ears, the two 
Eyes, the two Nostrils, 8& the Mouth. The Ears are to invent the names 
of the letters; the Eyes, to recognize and distinguish them; the Nostrils, 
to harmonize the voice and the sound made in uttering them; the 
Mouth, to pronounce them according to their accent, their sound, and 
their difference. The furred hoods of the Rectors and Doctors in our 
universities and of Councillors in our cities have been shaped to the 
curve of the head and upon the perfect circle of the O, to denote that 
such personages must have their heads absolutely perfect in all knowl- 
edge and virtue, which consist chiefly, as I have already said, in the true 
knowledge of pure and well-formed letters, which do not only enrich 
man, but ennoble him, and give to his name immortality. 


HE next figure has been drawn 
to show to the hand and the eye 
how the land the O adapt themselves 
to the face of man, not only each a 
itself, but both together. I doubt not 
that detractorsand envierswill cry out 
at this, but nevertheless I shall not fail 
to set down my conceit and my spec- 
ulation, to give pleasure and benefit 
to zealous students. I know, as I have 
said heretofore, in the First Book, that 
Learning has no enemy save the unlearned, ce are good for nothing 
but to find fault with others, and who cannot say a wise word or make 
a fair stroke of the pen. 
F these two letters, land O, imposed one upon the other, as you 
can see them in this figure, the Greeks made still another letter, 
which they call Phi, which “Phi is equivalent to a P and an H; and they 
use it in place of F, which they have not among their letters. It would 
seem that our figure is a sort of rebus, a hieroglyphic thing, and that I 
have drawn it to make the dreamers dream and rave; but all things 
considered, it is not so. For, in memory of the three Graces—called in 
Greek Xagireo, of whom the first is Pasithea, the second Aglaia, and 
the third Euphrosyne;—hand-maidens to Dame Venus, as Boccaccio 
narrates in the XXV [XXXV ] chapter of the fifth book of The 
Genealogy of the Gods ; of which Venus let us believe every virtuous and 


56 CHAMP FLEURY 


decent thing, and of the said hand-maidens the performance of every 
seemly and becoming duty,—I have drawn the letters land O and the 
human face together, in order always to approach nearer to the con- 
summate perfection of our Attic letters, which are XXIII in number; 
which number is equal to the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the 
four Cardinal Virtues, and the said three Graces; which said Muses, 
Liberal Arts, Cardinal Virtues, and Gracesare, in all, XXII] in number. 


Nasmuch as I have gone so far in contemplation of well-formed let- 
ters, it seems to me to be not useless in this place to point out that the 
number of XXIII letters, likewise that of the nine Muses, the seven 
Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, was se- 
cretly constituted & made to agree with the number of vital channels 
and of the noblest organs of the human body, which also are in num- 
ber three-and-twenty. 
Irst for the nine Muses, & for the nine Mutes, we will take the nine 
channels of vital essence, of which, as I have set down above, seven 
are in the head, and two others below the belly. Those in the head are 
the two ears, the two eyes, the two nostrils, and the mouth; the other 
twoare the virile member and the anus. For the seven Liberal Arts, and 
for the seven Semivowels, we will take the brain, the lung, the liver, the 
heart, the spleen, the navel, and the groin. For the four Cardinal Vir- 
tues and the three Graces, and for the five Latin vowels, the Ypsilon, 
and the aspirate H, we will take the two hands, the two feet, the two 
shoulders, and the rump. Thus we shall find the human body and per- 
fectly formed man to be the model for the disposition of the number 
of our letters, and in like manner for the nine Muses, the seven Liberal 
Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, already many 
times combined for argument’s sake; of which thing the better to show 
forth the truth and to make the reason thereof more manifest, I have 
here portrayed and drawn two figures of men, one for the disposition 
of the letters, the other for the said Muses and their companions. 
Vos can see in this next figure how the number XXII of the Attic 
letters adapts itself, as I have said, to the noblest organs & regions 
of the human body; and not without reason; for our worthy Ancient 
Fathers were so virtuous in their speculations that they determined se- 
cretly tomake clear that the perfect man is he in whom fine letters and 
goodly learning are so closely & intimately instilled that all parts and 


THE SECOND BOOK 57 


motions of his body are at- 
tended by the noble quali- 
tywhich Cicero in chapter 
XX XV of the first book 
of his De Officizs, & at the 
beginning of the Orator 
ad Brutum calls in Greek, 
neenov, and in Latin, deco- 
rum,34 which means in our 
French tongue, decent & 
seemly in all his acts, and, 
consequently, in all his do- 
ings & sayings a virtuous 
man. 
Efore I draw the other 
portrait which I have 
promised, I propose to set 
down here in writing all the 
letters as they should be 
applied to the nine Muses 
& their companions, & to 
the most notable parts of 
the human body, so that 
youcan the moreeasilysee 
and understand their per- 
fect accord as follows: — 


B. Urania: The right eye. 

C. Calliope: The left eye. 

D. Polymnia: The right ear. 
F. Melpomene: The left ear. 
G. Clio: The right nostril. 

K. Erato: The left nostril. 

P. Terpsichore: The mouth. 
Q. Euterpe: The anus. 

T. Thalia: The virile member. 


L. Musica: The brain. 
M. Astronomia: The lung. 


LHOMME LETRE 


N. Arithmetica: The liver. 
R. Geometria: The heart. 
S. Rhetorica: The spleen. 
X. Dialectica: The navel. 
Z. Grammatica: The groin. 


À. Justicia: The right hand. 

E. Fortitudo: The left hand. 

I. Prudentia: The right foot. 
©. Temperantia: The left foot. 


V. Pasithea:The right shoulder. 
Y. Aglaia: The left shoulder. 
H. Euphrosyne: The rump. 


* Book Xxxv, I. 


+ Catullus, x, 13; xvi, 16. 


CHAMP FLEURY 
fs letters arranged as you see them above are not in their alpha- 


betical order as commonly considered, but I have wittingly placed 
and applied them according to my little philosophy, to make it known 
that their nature and their qualities demand that they be mingled to- 
gether. In like manner, the Sciences, with the Arts, with the four Vir- 
tues, and with the Graces; also the Graces with the Virtues, with the 
Arts, and with the Sciences, just as we see in marquetry & mosaic work 
that pieces both small and large of divers colours are mingled together 
in such wise that they make a very beautiful and perfect work, which is 
called in Latin, Opus vermiculatum, Opus tessellatum et assarotum, whete- 
of Pliny, in his Natural History* and Vitruvius in his book of Archi- 
tecture speak amply enough for those who may wish to read & to learn. 
We see in the springtime that the beauty of a field and of a garden con- 
sists in the diversity & assembled multitude of divers beautiful plants 
and flowers, which with their odour give forth a delitounares worthy 
to be called divine and to live forever. 
Bee figure opposite you can perceive how the noble & worthy 

Ancients invented the Sciences and Liberal Arts according as they 
could profitably be made to adapt themselves usefully to the noblest 
organs of the human body; & this, as I have said, to show that the per- 
fect man should be so well equipped in learning and virtue that in all 
places and in all his words he will be honourable and virtuous. 


Ure am I that I shall have in this, as in many another passage, critics 

and backbiters, but, #07 pili faciot—I care not a straw for them. I 
dedicate myself to the service of the public weal, to lead the unlearned 
to the contemplation and comprehension of well-formed letters. 


OU can perceive that this little conceit of mine is not without 
foundation, seeing that I have, by means of Arithmetic & Geom- 
etry, brought all our said Attic letters into accord, to show their divine 
perfection. I beg my readers that, if I have conjectured aright, they will 
be grateful to me therefor; and if not, that they will do better, if they 
can, to the end that their knowledge be not Thesaurus absconditus, that 


. tstosay,a hidden & useless treasure. I know that thereare many shrewd 


minds who would willingly write many excellent things if they thought 
they could do it well in Greek and Latin; yet they abstain from it for 
fear of committing some absurdity or other fault, which they dread; 


THE SECOND BOOK 59 


LHOMME SCIENTIFIQUE 
Urania Musica Calliope 


a: 

Polymnia »\ Melpomene 

Clio MR £ Erato 
GAS - Aglaia 


Pasythea 


Astronomia 


Arithmetica LHe i 
Geometria ay 
Rhetorica m/s 


E, 
Dialectica Um fares | upbrosyne 
Euterpe PE, i) : - Grammatica 
Justicia Fortitudo 
Z Thalia 
Prudentia .- LTemperantia 


or they do not choose to write in French, esteeming the French tongue 
_neither good enough nor elegant enough. Saving their honour, it is one 
of the most beautiful & graceful of all human tongues; as] have shown, 
in the First Book, by the authority of eminent Ancient Writers, Poets 
and Orators, both Latin and Greek. 

E have observed the agreement & harmony between our letters & 

the human body in general, & in especial the head of that body; 
but I propose, following this, to adapt some letters to the full view of 
the face, others to the half view, and others to the third, and this can be 
shown by graphic demonstration in the figure that follows, in which 
three faces only will be drawn, & afterward three letters with the three 
faces. 


60 CHAMP FLEURY 


A these three faces are so drawn that one is seen entire, the second 
only half or thereabouts, & the third still more foreshortened, so 
among our Attic letters 4 | 


[oll lea Sa 
PT le 


amy 


| (tl 


squared—that is to say, as 
broad as they are high. 
Others are less broad, & 
others even more restrict- 
ed in breadth. And this is 
i 

of our letters has. In all aN Lee. lid 
except the Q the height de 
must always be the same between two parallel lines hae between 
them the space of ten units, that is to say, ten times the thickness of the 
L And of this letter Q the body is ten units in height, like the other 

ing its height, can be seen sometimes as broad as it is high,—and 
this ina front view,—and | 
at other times less broad + 
than high, according as 
it is turned, so all our let- 

HAN 4 

no; and cores sits, fh Wer ‘1 œ 
appears in following the : # 
natural conditions of the Ue JEPA ‘a C ; 
human body and of the Pasi 
face as well. We see that 


therearesomemen larger 


there are some of which i, 
Does hy 
what I have already said, 

when I wrote how many 

letters; and its tail of four units, which are in addition to the said ten 
units, and are outside and below the two parallel lines. 

ters,as I have said before, 

must always be equal in 

KG 
of body and of face than 
others, and some more active & brisk and sprightly; some healthier and 


we have acomplete view, 
| AE EN = = ZEUS aK 
units of breadth each one 
HE next figure shows us that, even as the face of a man, maintain- 
height, but in breadth, 
others wiser; some more virtuous, & others less so. In like manner, there 


LHS ECOND BOOK 61 


are letters which are greater & of more value than others. Such are the 
vowels, without which there can be no true syllable, Greek, Latin, or 
French. For in every syllable that one can pronounce there is at least 
one vowel. And very often a syllable—and a word as well—consists of 
one of the said vowels (which are five in number, namely A, E, I, O, 
and U) without any other letter. 
Example of A alone forminga syllable [in Latin]: A-men; forming 

a word: Ne discesseris a me. Example in French of A alone ina syllable 
& in a word: A-costumez a bien dire et bien faire. Example of E alone 
making a syllable & a word [in Latin ]: E-tiam, e-ia, e regione. Example 
in Frenchwhenitisalone ina syllable: E-stienne est en e-smoy. Example 
of I forming a syllable and a word [in Latin]: I-tem, i-bo, i. Terence, in 
Andria: |, pre, sequar.* Our example in French will be only when it 
forms a syllable, & not a word; for I can neither be nor make a word in 
our tongue, albeit in figures & in tales it is often put for the numeral one. 
Therefore, the examples will be I-tem,which came from the Latin into 
French, and I-ssue de table. O, in like manner, can form a syllable & a 
word. Syllable: O-lor,o-men. Word: O Mœlibeæ Deus nobis hæc o-cia 
Lotia ] fecit. Examples in French: O-stier doibt hommage au caignard. 
O quil est peu de bons amys! The V [U ]Jis used only asa syllable; for 
in Latin it does not form a word by itself. Therefore, the example will 
be: U-susu-bique u-alet. In French we can say: U-sage and u-sufruyct. 
The Picard, to be sure, uses U as a word when he says: U est no fieux. 
U est men baron. 

Here are other letters which are tractable, and of such easy virtue 

that they glide along and, becoming as it were invisible, vanish in 
certain syllables, having a Mute before them, and do not always leng- 
then the quality of the vowels placed before them. They are called, in 
Latin, Liquide, quia liquescunt post mutas positas in eadem syllaba3>> The 
Liquids, which are four in number,—namely, L, M, N, and R,—are so 
fluid in metrical quantity, that sometimes they make ‘position’,3® that 
is to say, extend and make long the preceding vowel, and sometimes 
leave it short, as in these Latin words, Patris, Tenebra, Stagna; which 
thing can be seen abundantly in Terentian, where he says:— 


Ecce stagna madent triplici sic syllaba pacto 
Temporis accessu non tantum est reddita longa 
Sed dedit et vireis geminis augere Trocheum.t 


* AG 1, scene I, 144. 


+ Terentianus Maurus (a 
grammarian of the late first 
century after Chris), ‘De 
literis, syllabis, pedibus, et 


metris ,’ 11, lines 1104-1106. 


* Grammatica, edition of 
1508, folio cx, recto. 


+ Folio cx, verso. 


62 GHAMP FLEURY 


Aldus, too, in his very excellent Grammar, treats most learnedly of this 
matter in his Book IIII, in the chapter, De septem modis communium 
syllabarum, where he says, M et N liquidas, et cetera, down to “Dua 
praterca Muta inueniuntur aliquando non producere antecedentem breuem : 
ut M et N liquida.* Which matter I leave for good students to read at 
length in the said passage; & I say, to the same effect, that the Liquids 
are like some men, who are great dissemblers and great deceivers, and 
who know how to achieve their shifts and evasions better and more 
quickly than to move their fingers. 


[* our French tongue we can make use of the qualities of these Li- 
quids only in Orthography, because our tongue is not governed by 
rules of Grammar, as the Greek and Latin are. 


Here are other letters which are so capable that one is equal to two, 

and for this reason they are called in Latin “Duplices, that is to say, 
double letters. And they are two in number, X and Z. The X is used 
for cand s, or for g and s; the Z for double s,—or if you would have it 
otherwise, for two ss,—also for sand d. The Latins have this rule, and 
we adopt it only very long after them; for, as I have said, our tongue is 
not yet established by rule like theirs; but it will be at some time if it 
shall be our Lord’s pleasure. 

HE Latins, as I have said put X for c and s, or for gands,whenin- 

stead of writing Regs, regis, and Ducs, ducis, they write Rex, regis, & 
“Dux, ducis. In like manner instead of writing Patrisso and “Pétisso, they 
write Patrizoand Pirizo, as the Greeks do; and, instead of writing Gasda, 
they write Gaza. These two double letters, X and Z, are also sometimes 
single consonants in respect to the quantity of syllables, as Aldus very 
learnedly shows in the same Book IIII of his Grammar, in the chap- 
ter, De septem modis communium syllabarum,when he says: Quintus modus 
est, cum correptam vocalem suscipit Z, et cactera.t 


S there are men who have few good parts, and are of little use, ex- 
cept in their number, like the numeral o,which by itself makes no 
number, but with others multiplies their value, so it is with the letter 
S, which is sometimes a quasi-liquid, making the vowel that precedes 
it long, and sometimes not, and very often vanishes and is lost to sight 
in respect to metrical quantity. As Priscian says in his first book, where- 


THE SECOND BOOK 63 


in he treats De literarum commutatione, when he says: S in metro apud ve- 
tuStissimos vim suam frequenter amittit. And Virgil in the Eleventh Book 


of the Aineid :— 

Ponite spes sibi quisque, sed hac quam angusta videtis.* 
And again in the Twelfth :— 

Inter se coijsse viros et decernere ferro. ¢ 


I could give other examples of the way it is lost to sight in metre, but I 
refer the earnest student to Terentianus, an ancient author very serious 
and learned in his art, and to the excellent Aldus, in Book IIII of his 
hereinbefore cited Grammar, In tertio modo communium syllabarum. 
O show the changeable nature of the said letter S, the Ancients 
represented it as twisted in shape and of medium breadth, as we 
shall see when we come to fashion and draw it in its due order, with our 
Lord’s help, and shall say of it, as of the others, some pleasant thing, 
following the teaching of the good authors. | 
E make use of the S properly in writing; but in pronunciation 
I find that there are some who deal but ill with it; for, instead 
of saying, ‘Deus, deus, meus justusiet fortis Dominus, they stammer 
& bite off the tail, saying ‘Deu, deu, meu justu et forti Dominu,’ which 
is a very great fault and too common with many simple-minded folk. 
A man who would fain be believed, and who wishes that full faith be 
iven his words, should in speaking pronounce clearly and smoothly 
all his syllables, no less at the end of words than at the beginning. For 
when a man does not pronounce distinctly, it seems to the hearers that 
he is making sport of them, or that he knows not what he says. And 
they, angered by such language, either turn their thoughtsat once oth- 
erwhere, or fall asleep, or go from the place where he speaks so vainly, 
or, which is worse, break in constantly upon his words in their wrath. 
Icould give examples enough in French, but itwould seem to some that 
I did it in mockery; therefore I will refrain for the moment, and will 
continue to show abundantly the divine perfection of our noble and 
divine Attic letters. 


if Cannot go further without giving proof that our said letters were 
invented through divine inspiration. Certain it is that the King of 


Greek poets, Homer, near the beginning of Book VIII of his Idad, 


© XT, 300. 


} XII, 709. 


* See note 37 to page 66. 


+ Dialogue xx1,Martis et 
Mercurit. 


Luck, TS: 


64 CHAMP FLEURY 


imagines that Jupiter said that he alone, with a chain of gold, could 
draw to himself, if he would, all the other Gods, aye, and with them the 
earth and the sea.* Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Gods, shows us Mars 
and Mercury conspiring and muttering against Jupiter because of this 
said chain,t and Macrobius, one of the greatest Latin philosophers, 
makes mention thereof in his first book, I Somnium Scipionis, when he 
says: Cumque omnia continuis successionibus se sequantur degenerantia, per 
ordinem ad imum meandi, inuenictur pressius intuenti, a summo “Deo usque 
ad ultimum una se mutuis vinculis religans, et nusquam interrupta connexio. 
Et hac es Homeri Cathena aurea, quam pendere de calo in terras “Deum jus- 
sisse commemorat.t ‘He who shall choose,’ he says, ‘to meditate and ob- 
serve, will find a chain and bond formed of intertwined links, which 
hangs down from heaven to earth’; which is to say that every inspira- 
tion, spiritual & corporeal, that we can know here below, proceeds from 
the sovereign Creator of the whole world. Let us, then, imagine and 
believe that we see this gold chain hanging down from heaven even to 
our feet, and this chain ts of a length & breadth duly proportioned and 
adaptable to the symmetrical figure of our model letter I, and we shall 
perceive that Homer’s conceit is to be referred to the inspiration and 
invention of letters and sciences, which have never been and cannot be 
known without divine aid and quickening. 


O show the harmony between our letters and this chain of gold I 

have designed and drawn it here with our said I, to the end that, 
together with my words, the Philoso- 
phy which encompasses our said let- Z 
ters, and which I have observed, may Cie ets 
be made manifest to the eye. | 


‘OU can see in the figure here de- 
signed and drawn the divine har- 
mony between our model letter & the 
Homeric chain of gold, & how I have 
arranged in such wise that there are 
just ten links corresponding to the ten 


: : Ê 4 : ~S A À 
units of height of the I, & likewise to po A NS 
the nine Muses & their Apollo, which 1 pa 


Thave hereinbefore drawn & arranged 


THE SECOND BOOK 65 


together. The reason why I have allotted ten rather than more or less 
is clearly stated ; but, furthermore, I find that our excellent Ancient 
Fathers intended to attribute consummate and absolute perfection to 
the tenth number, inasmuch as it isan even number, composed of both 
even and odd numbers. Martianus Capella, in his Book VII, where 
he speaks of the “Decade, is a good witness when he says: “Decas vero 
ultra omnes habenda qua omnes numeros diuerse virtutis ac perfectionis intra 
se habet.* The tenth,’ he says, ‘in truth is of surpassing excellence, seeing 
that it contains and has in itself all the numbers both odd and even, 
that is to say, all good qualities and perfection.’ 

Can, therefore, well say, and truthfully maintain, that I have good 

reason for having fashioned my letters with a height of ten units, 
which is the noblest and most perfect of all numbers; for the Ancient 
Fathers determined to place all the numbers & symbols of Arithmetic 
beneath it, and after it there is no number which has a special name, 
but always a repetition, as we see when we say onze, douxe, treixe, and so 
with the other numbers that come after, which mean one, or two, or 
three, or more, after and with ten. 
bl aide King of Greek Poets, Homer, wishing to show covertly that 

the man supreme in counsel is he in whom all useful knowledge is 

and dwells, introduces Agamemnon, in the First Book of his [éad,wish- 
ing that he might have ten Nestors, when he says: 4d quem respondens, 
Agamemnon. ‘Enim vero, inquit, venerande senex omnes sine controuersia 
Grecos Senatores vincis in dicenda sententia. Atque vtinam fecisses pater Ju- 
piter; tuque,O Minerua; et tu, Apollo, vt decem mihi ex omnibus Gracis fo- 
rent tanto consilio viri, Breui profecto Trota nostris manibus capta deleretur. 
Agamemnon, answering Nestor, said to him: ‘O venerable old man, 
without doubt thou dost surpass in wisdom and good counsel all the 
Senators of Greece. O Jupiter, would that it might please thee, & thee, 
Minerva, and likewise thee, Apollo, that from all the men of Greece I 
might have ten like Nestor; then would Troy, taken by our hands, be 
speedily destroyed.’ 


Set down here these fine things in order to show always more abun- 
dantly the great and sovereign perfection of our letters. They are so 
truly measured & proportioned that they fit together like the links of 
the chain of gold; for the Letters and Sciences are so akin and so loyal 
to each other that, if you have knowledge of the one, you have free en- 


VIE, 747 


* Verse 365. 


66 CHAMP FLEURY 


trance and access to the other. As we know by experience that in sum- 
mer, when cherries are good to eat, and when you mean to take one of 
them on a dish, and mean to take only one, you pluck six or seven, nine 
or ten more with the first one. Horace, too, in his<_4rs Poetica, remarks 
on this subject, that is to say, that the tenth number is most perfect: 
Decies repetita placebunt.* ‘Things, he says, ‘ten times repeated will give 
pleasure, and withal will be more perfect. I have, therefore, with good 
reason divided the superficial height and breadth of our letters into ten 
units, and the chain of gold into ten links, corresponding to our model 
letter I. There are some who, as laymen speak of arms, say that they 
should be divided into six only, others into eight, and others into nine. 
But what they mean by six, or eight, or nine I know not, whether por- 
tions, or units, or lines. But methinks that they talk more because they 
think to show thereby that they know something of the matter, than 
from true knowledge or experience; therefore I leave them to their 
opinion, ill-founded as it is in reason. 


FEY persons would have thought that our aforesaid King of Greek 
Poets, Homer, covertly & under the mask of fable, signified the di- 
vine inspiration of Letters & Sciences, & their intimate connection; but 
on searching closely thereinto, it is clear that he so did, whether or no 
it appears at first sight; and, to give to devoted lovers of well-formed 
letters the wherewithal to meditate and reflect, I will quote him here, 
to the end that you may see and fully understand. 


Tywoert’ emeit’ ooov eut Sewv naetiotos anavt’ 
Eid’ aye meignoaoe Oeot iva eidete mavreo, 
DUEIOHV XOUCEIHV E& oupavolev npeuavteo, 
[avreo 8’ e€antebe Geo, macai redeaivar. 
A oun av eguoait’ e& oveavobev mediovde 
(uv’ urarov wHoTWe’ oud’ ei pala nolÂa nanolte 
A ote bu nat eywv meodewv eSedoimt eoucca, 
AvTH uev Yai eouoat w’auTH Te Oalacon. 
DUEIQHV HEV MEV EMEITA TEE EIWV OUAUTTOLO 

Ancat uv taden’ aUTE WETHOOG MavTa YEVOITO. 


Toooov eyw megit’ ei euv, megit’ Ju’ avOoumuv. 37 


That is to say, in Latin, as Laurence Valla translates it for us: —4ge- 
dum auream vestim e cœlo suspendite, eaque cuntti Dii ac Dea apprebensa me 


THE SECOND BOOK 67 


hinc detrahite in terram. Nullo id quantolibet nixu poteritis efficere. At cum 
mihi facere idem ivato libuerit, in terras vos Uniuersos, et in maria vsque 
detraherem, quin etiam circumligata reste hac ad summitatem Olympi omnia 
superne alleuarem vt intelligatis quantum ego Des simulatque homines ante- 
cello. That is, Jupiter is represented as saying:—‘If you would make 
trial of my powers and strength and would have some knowledge of 
me, hasten, and hang from Heaven a chain of gold; and if you all, 
both Gods and Goddesses, can do it, draw me from hence to earth: I 
know that,with all your strength, you will not be able to doit. But when 
Jam wroth, if it be my pleasure, I will drag you all hither and thither, 
by land and sea, & destroy you utterly. And, far more, with this chain 
of gold I could draw the whole of earth & sea to the topmost summit 
of Olympus. And by this, know how far I excel and surpass in might 
both Gods and men.’ 


Ustly, then, will this chain of gold, which we have imposed upon our 

I, signify to us, by allegory, that the knowledge & inspiration of let- 
ters comes to us from Heaven and from God; that these letters are so 
closely akin and so nearly connected that they all have a share in each 
other; likewise the Sciences, and consequently the Virtues. 


Ve a great imitator of Homer, instead of this chain of gold, im- 
agined a Golden Bough for his Æneas, which means, inallegory, 
that every learned and virtuous man carries in his hand—that is to say, 
for his use—a Bough of Wisdom, which is of gold as being the most 
precious of all metals. The Sibyl, that is to say, divine inspiration, says 
to Æneas, that is to say, to the devoted lover & observer of virtue, which 
consists chiefly in letters and goodly learning, the words that follow; 
and they are written in Book VI of the said Virgil’s Aineid :— 


Accipe que peragenda prius, latet arbore opaca 
Aureus et folijs et lento vimine ramus, 

Junoni infernæ dictus sacer, hunc tegit omnis 
Lucus, et obscuris claudunt conuallibus vmbrz, 
Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire, 
Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore fœtus. 
Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus 
Instituit, primo auulso non deficit alter 


* Æneid, V1, 136. See the 
translation of the longer in- 
clusive passage on pages 69 
and 70, in Note 38. 


+ From aivéw 5 


68 CHAMP FLEURY 


Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo. 
Ergo alte vestiga oculis, et rite repertum 
Carpe manu, namque ipse volens, facilisque sequetur.* 


| Fee ty that you see a lady named Divine Inspiration, saying to the 
zealous student and virtuous youth what follows.—‘Hearken,’ she 
says, ‘to what it is meet that you should do before ought else. There isin 
yonder earthly forest a Golden Bough hidden ina great densely leaved 
tree. This bough hasvery softand pliable leaves and twigs, and is sacred 
to Juno, the Goddess of that place. It is encompassed by a great number 
of ancient trees and by shady vales. And know that no man can enter 
into the secret places of the earth until he shall have plucked the said 
golden bough. For the beautiful Goddess Proserpine has decreed that 
it be given her asa present. As soon as you have plucked one, there will 
spring forth another, of gold and of the same form. Therefore, search 
well and gaze with all your eyes, & as soon as you have found it, pluck 
it with your hand; for you will easily obtain it, since it will let itself be 
pulled from its place, as of its own will and at your pleasure.’ 
Tie this beautiful golden bough, like Homer’s golden chain, sig- 
nifies Learning; & its leaves, which are three-and-twenty in num- 
ber, are the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. And he who shall 
succeed in finding it in the great forest of the miseries of this world 
& in the valleys thereof, he is an Aineas, that is to say, a man of great 
qualities and worthy of all praise. For Aweiact in Greek, means a man 
worthy of all praise & honour. The reason why I say and quote these 
fine things in passing is always the better to exalt our well-shaped let- 
ters, & the more zealously to urge goodly minds to devote their hearts 
and their love to the said letters and sciences. 
| Have said that this golden bough had three-and-twenty leaves, co- 
vertly signifying the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. And 
should any ask me how I know it,I should say that the noble Poet Virgil 
so taught me, the while I gazed upon his Æneas, seeking the said gold- 
en bough that he might go down into the dark places of profound med- 
itation upon the vices & virtues of this mortal life. And if some noble 
heart would fain learn by touch and by sight where he may find this 
number three-and-twenty, let him read in the sixth book of the Aineid, 
where, as I have quoted, Virgil introduces the Sibyl counselling Æneas 
to seek the golden bough, and he will find that the Poet wittingly and 


THE SECOND BOOK 69 


covertly makes her speak in three-&-twenty verses, of which the first is: 
Tros anchisiade facilis descensus auerni. 

And, proceeding, the last verse is: — 
Vincere nec duro poteris conuellere ferro. 


Counting these two & those that are between them, we shall find three- 
and-twenty verses, And should one reply that these are verses, and not 
letters, [should say that, for the orderly disposition & description of the 
thing, he wrote three-&-twenty verses; which number he made to cor- 
respond covertly to the three-&-twenty letters of the Alphabet, without 
which one can acquire neither learning nor perfect virtue. These mat- 
ters will not be found in the commentaries on the said passage, for the 
commentators are intent upon following their style as commentators, 
while I have been intent upon observation of the significance & allego- 
rical meaning of the letters. There are those who say that Virgil meant 
by this golden branch a branch of mistletoe,* which is almost of the col- 
our of gold, and which has little round white berries like pearls; but, 
saving their honour, he meant, as I have said, learning, whereof the 
leaves are letters. If you take away the leaves from a bough, there is no 
bough left, but a bare limb; so, if you take away letters from learning, 
there is no learning left, but ignorance. And to place this matter before 
your eyes, I will draw here a figure and design of each, namely, a bough 
& a bare limb. But first I will set down the said three-and-twenty verses 
at length, to the end that students may rejoice for not having to seek 
them out in Virgil. 

Tros anchisiade facilis descensus auerni, 

Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis, 

Sed reuocare gradum, superasque euadere ad auras. 

Hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci quos aquus amauit 

Juppiter, aut ardens euexit ad æthera virtus 

Dijs geniti potuere, tenent media omnia syluæ, 

Cocytusque sinu labens circunfluit atro. 

Quod si tantus amor menti si tanta cupido est 

Bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre 

Tartara, et insano juuat indulgere labort, 

Accipe quz peragenda prius, latet arbore opaca 

Aureus et folijs et lento vimine ramus, 

Junoni infernz dictus sacer, hunc tegit omnis 


* ‘Guy’ = gui? 


* Æneid, v1, 126.38 


| Aineid,v1, 149. Tory mis- 
takenly wrote, or printed, 
‘examinum and ‘fumere.’ 


70 CHAMP FLEURY 


Lucus, et obscuris claudunt conuallibus umbræ. 
Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire, 
Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore foctus 
Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus 
Instituit primo auulso non deficit alter 
Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo. 
Ergo alte vestiga oculis, et rite repertum 
Carpe manu, namque ipse volens facilisque sequetur. 
Si te fata vocant aliter non viribus vllis 
Vincere nec duro poteris conuellere ferro.* 
O, the three-&-twenty verses wherein our golden bough is described, 
8 wherein we can imagine three-and-twenty leaves, each of which 
will have a letter written in it. When the Sibyl says furthermore,— 


Præterea iacet exanimum tibi corpus amici 
Heu nescis, totamque incestat funere classem,t 


she is no longer speaking of the golden bough, but of another; whereof, 
then, he who shall well perceive Virgil’s secret meaning will find to be 
true all that I have hereinbefore said and written according to my poor 
understanding. 
if Have drawn the golden bough according to Virgil in the verses here- 
inbefore quoted, which, as I have said, signifies learning; & beneath 
it the limb without leaves, which denotes ignorance. But note well how, 
on the said golden bough, I have drawn three twigs, of which the one 
in the middle, which is the chief & longest one, has nine leaves, where- 
in are written, one apart from another, the nine mutes, B, C, D, F, G, 
K, P, Q,T, which represent the nine Muses. Then, on another twig, at 
the left side, there are seven leaves wherein in like manner are written 
the seven semi-vowels, L, M, N, R, S, X, and Z, which represent the 
seven Liberal Arts. Likewise the third, right-hand twig has on it seven 
leaves, wherein are written the five Latin vowels, A, E, I, O, V, and one 
Greek one, Y, and with them the aspirate H, which, because it is not 
deemed a true letter, is written in the lowest leaf. By which six vowels 
and aspirate, we understand the four Cardinal Virtues & the Graces, 
of comely grace and virtue. Thus, then, in the said Golden Bough of 
Virgil are comprised and covertly suggested the nine Muses, the seven 
Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, which 
make the full number of the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. | 


THE SECOND BOOK 71 
LE RAMEAV DOR ET DE SCIENCE 


LA BRANCHE DIGNORANCE 


O the best of my ability, I have by God’s grace, according to my 

humble theory & philosophical speculation, adapted the Homeric 
chain of gold to our model letter I, & Virgil’s golden bough to the nine 
Muses and their companions. Now if it be our Lord’s pleasure, I pur- 
pose to extend the said Homeric chain of gold, which I have drawn in 
the alone, of ten links, which represent the nine Muses & their Apollo, 
to three-and-twenty links arranged evenly around the other model let- 
ter, O, which said links will represent, as the leaves of Virgil’s golden 
bough have done, the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet, & like- 


72 GCHAMPSRLEURY 


wise the nine Muses & their companions. All of which matter, to make 
it the better understood I have drawn below as best I could, leaving it 
for those who can and will, to do better. 


he this next figure I have designed and drawn the O in its superficial 


square, according to its proper measurement of ten units of height 
& ten of breadth, divided between eleven perpendicular & horizontal 


lines, as you can easily perceive by the eye and by the compass, to show 
the accord between the said three-and-twenty links and the three-and- 
twenty letters which I have written in the rays of the Sun, each by itself, 
one after another, at the right of each link; and outside, between the 
rays of the Sun, I have also written & placed the nine Muses, the seven 
Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, & the three Graces, each apart 
from the rest. And in the very center of the O, I have drawn and por- 


TT 


THE SECOND BOOK 74 


trayed Apollo playing upon his divine lyre, to show that the linking 
together and the round perfection of the Letters, Muses, Liberal Arts, 
Cardinal Virtues, and Graces are inspired by Apollo, that is to say, by 
the Sun, or, if you like it better so, say by our true God and Creator, 
who is the veritable Sun, without whose aid all body & spirit is forever 
numb and vain, & without which we can have no knowledge of letters 
or of learning, or of any virtue whatsoever. 

HE circular form of the O, and the circular form of the Homeric 

chain of gold imposed upon the said O, signifies the conjunction 
of all good qualities in perfection which every zealous student should 
have within himself. In geometry every circular figure, solid or not, is 
the most comprehensive and most perfect of all. When Horace said in 
his Ars Poetica,— 


Graijs dedit ore rotondo 
Musa loqui,* 


he did not mean that the mouths of the Greeks were round, like the 
mouth of a well, or like a ball, but that their Muse, their learning, and 
their language were most perfect. Wherefore this circle shall, as I have 
said, signify to us the summit of perfection that lies in the true knowl- 
edge of well-formed letters and of learning. 

E can now therefore see clearly enough that our two model tri- 

umphal letters, I and O, are justly fitted & adapted to the Ho- 
meric chain of gold, and that, righteously exulting, we can say again 
and again :— 


To, Io, Dicamus Io, Io, dulces homeriaci.t 
Dicite lo Pzean, et Io bis dicite Pzan.t 
Non semel dicemus Io, triumphe.§ 


O show that they who have knowledge of well-formed letters gov- 

ern and excel the ignorant, and to arouse & stimulate shrewd wits, 
I will make below a drawing wherein Apollo, in a chariot of gold and 
precious stones, shall be drawn in triumph by the nine Muses, the sev- 
en Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, The 
four Cardinal Virtues shall hold the four corners of the chariot, and 
the three Graces shall lead its three horses—Eous, Pyrois, & Æthon. 
In this triumphal procession each of the Graces shall bear aloft in one 
hand the festal staff,— which the Romans call to-day ume Haulse com- 


* Verse 323. 


Ÿ See Note 22. 
t Ovid,‘ Ars Amoris,' 11, 1. 
§ Horace, ‘Odes’ tv, 2, 49. 


* See Ovid, “ Metamorpho- 


ses, IV, 606. 


74 CHAMP FLEURY 
TH ESNTHRE TERMES 


UMPH OF 
APOLLO 
AND THE 
MUSES. 


paire, and shall do her service and bear herself joyously and with an air 
befitting a great triumph. Apollo shall be seated in his chariot, playing 
upon his divine lyre. Behind the chariot Bacchus & Ceres shall be led 
captive and Venus, too, to show us that in order to triumph in letters, 
one must be moderate in eating & in drinking & in lusts of the flesh. 
All these excellent things, already described in words, shall be set forth 
in drawing, to the end that the unlettered, observing their disposi- 
tion there, may take pleasure with the bodily eye, in order to rejoice 
the eye of the spirit therewith, and to spur them on to the knowledge 
of letters and sciences. | 
Ere, then, you see the great triumph of Apollo, with his Muses & 
other fair companions, who make manifest to the eye how, by 


means of letters and sciences, every man, by making good use of them, 


can attain to supreme honour and make his name immortal. If in this 
matter you should desire fuller insight, go read in the Triwmphs of Mes- 
ser Francesco Petrarca, and you will find in the “Triumph of Renown’ 
that the Poets, Philosophers, and Orators, through their studious zeal, 
albeit they long since died in the body, still live in the spirit, and will 
live longer than any other men, however virtuous those others may 
have been. 

Might also add to this, and apply by a like allegory, the shower of 

gold, whereinto, according to the ancient poets and philosophers, 
Jupiter transformed himself, to descend from heaven to earth, to the 
brazen tower of Acrisius, King of Greece & father of the lovely Danae.* 
And, too, I might write of the Mercurial herb which the Greeks call 
Moly,? whereof Homer speaks in his Odyssey, in the Tenth Book; but 
leaving those matters for good students to meditate upon, I will pass 
them by, and go on to fashion and describe all our Attic letters of the 
Alphabet, one after another, according to their common order. And to 
begin, with God’s assistance, I remember that I have already said that 


Te aang Le 


ae Fae NS 1 


THE SECOND BOOK 75 
7 Brae Ge En W7S 
Cr RES AND 
VENUS ARE 
HERE TAKEN 


AY 
Sous CAPTIVE. 


/ 
DR © 


all our said letters are formed from and allied to the I and the O; and 


that I and A were conceived in the flower of a purple-hued lily called 
in Paris /isflambe, and which Dioscorides, and his Florentine translator, 
Marcellus Virgilius, called Hyacinthus, and which in vulgar Italian is 
called Hyacinthiol.* I have made here a drawing wherein the A is 
placed upon a /Jésflambe in a square; and the A 
is formed of the I multiplied intoa triangle; or, 
if you would say it otherwise, say that the A is 
formed of three I’s placed one upon another, 
taking of each what is needed to form a perfect 
A, as you can see in the said drawing, wherein 
I have made the A black, and what remains of 
the three I’s I have left in white,as being super- 
fluous for the A. The drawing is shown here. 
Ehold then how, as I have said, the I is the 
model of the Attic letters, that is to say, for 
those which have straight limbs. We shall see 
hereafter about the O, in which we shall draw 
the B, which is formed from I & O, seeing that 
it has a straight limb, and rounded parts which 
mark the place of the joints. 


T this place, giving praise to our Lord God, 

I will make an end of our Second Book, 
wherein we have, according to our poor under- 
standing, demonstrated the origin of the Attic 
letters, & have sought to urgeand pray—which 
thing we do still pray—that some zealous minds 
may endeavour to order our French tongue by 
rule, to the end that we may be able to make use 


* See page 24 supra. 


6 | CHAMP FLEURY 


; of it in a seemly way and with surety, to set down in: 
worthy to be known,which we must needs beg from i 
_ Greeks and Latins, and which we cannot possess W wi 3 
expenditure of time and money. ; ‘ 


' x 


iro iii DOOK 


T the beginning of the little book that 
good fathers give their small children to 
begin their schooling, & to learn the Pa- 
ter Noster, Ave Maria, Credo in Deum, 
and the other pleasant little matters of 
our faith, there are usually a Cross and 
three A’s. But few personstake the pains 
to learn & understand what they mean, 
or for what reason there isa Cross rather 
than a Star, a Moon, or a Sun, which are significative of some symbol- 

ism or demonstration, as is manifest in many things; or why there are 

three A’s rather than two, or four. But in this place, with Our Lord’s 
aid, I will set down what these things seem to me to mean, according 
to my humble reasoning and understanding. 


| see Cross not only signifies good fortune, according to our faith, 
because in it was our redemption, but also, according to the ancient 
philosophers, it isa sign and symbol of some felicity, which is requisite 
for those who are beginning to learn and to know well-formed letters. 
Furthermore, the Cross is made of two lines, of whichall our Attic let- 
ters are formed: they are the perpendicular line & the horizontal line, 
forming a right angle & equal in quadrature, whereof I have written 
in many passages of the Second Book. Moreover, when the Ephesians 
wished to make use of their magic letters, which they wrote upon cer- 
tain parts of their bodies, to gain victories, & to bring their parleystoan 
end, as Erasmus shows in his second Chiliad, in Proverb LX XIX, of 
which the title is, Ephesia litere, they made the sign of the Cross there, 
thinking thereby to obtain the sooner what they demanded. They made 
use of the Cross, because they saw that the World is shaped like a Cross, 
that is to say, with East, West, South & North; & because man, too— 
who is, as some philosophers say, & as is clearly shown in the thirtieth 
chapter of the Book of the Game of Chess, a Muxgonocpos,a little world, — 
bears within himself the figure of the Cross; this, when he has his feet 
together and his arms outstretched. Coelius Rhodiginus, in the eighth 
Chapter of the sixth book of his Ancient Lessons,* has many another 
good and excellent discourse on the Cross, which I omit for brevity’s 


* Leéfionum -Antiquarum. 


* VIII, 75. 


+ Tory, of course, quotes from 
theVulgate. Inthe King James 
version we find (1:6): Ab! 
Lord God!” etc. 


t Revelation, xxx, 6. 


§ Ibid, xxtt, 13. 


\| Beta. 


78 CHAMP FPEEUR® 


sake, referring to him those zealous students who would exercise them- 
selves therein. 
Se content myself with the reason I have given, that the Cross, 
inasmuch as it is formed of a perpendicular and a horizontal line, is 
the foundation for designing and making all our said Attic letters, as 
I shall prove by example and figure, with Our Lord’s aid. 
HE writing of three A’s rather than two, or four, signifies, I say 
again, some felicity; for the number of the Trinity is odd, & of all 
numbers the noblest & most perfect. It is made of an even & odd num- 
ber, & their sum is odd. Virgil in his Bucolics has said: Numero Deus impa- 
re gaudet.* ‘Divine things, he says, ‘must be ofan odd number.’ Likewise 
we have in our blessed faith, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
all which three taken together we believe to be one God, and equal in 
power. So our three A’s have but one sound, as a syllable and as a word. 
To show us this blessed Trinity & happy repetition, the good Prophet 
Jeremiah says in his first chapter: A, A, A, Domine Deus, ecce, nescio loqui, 
quia puer ego sum. ‘A, A, A, he says, ‘my Lord God, thou seest that I can- 
not speak, for Iam only a child.’ When a child is born, the first sound 
he makes contains in it, so ’tis said, this letter A, and this is why our 
ancient fathers placed it first in the order of letters, rather than M, or 
S, or any other of them all. I could give many another strong argument 
in this regard, but let him who shall desire to know, read Plutarch’s 
Symposiacs, the ninth Decade,*? and he will satisfy his mind, if it is 
easily satisfied. 
Is called in Greek Alpha, and is oftentimes, as well in Holy Writ 
as in the poets, put for beginning, In the twenty-first and penul- 
timate chapter of the Apocalypse, are the words Ego sum Alpha et wi 
that is to say, in Latin, Ego sum initium et finis; and in French, Ie suis le 
commancemant et ba fin. And in the last chapter, Ego sum Alpha et w, primus 
et nouissimus, principium et finis. Tam, he says, ‘Alpha and Omega, the 
first and the last, the beginning and the end.’§ Alpha, then is used for 
beginning, and for this reason A is put first in the alphabetical order of 
letters, which thing he who denies it can see in Plato. 
pS is yet another hidden reason why Alpha signifies beginning; 
& this is that the Greeks reckon & form their numbers by letters; 
the said letters, as is the case too in Hebrew, serving as figures and sym- 
bols of numbers to reckon with. Alpha (A) is put for the first number 


and for one; Vital (B), for two; Gamma (T°) for three; Delta (A), for 


À 
f 
À 
1 
| 
’ 


THE THIRD BOOK 79 


four; Epsilon (E), for five; but after Epsilon, XT, that is to say, Sigma 
and Tau together, are inserted, and signify six. Then Zeta (Z) is used 
for seven; Eta (H), for eight; Theta (©), for nine; Iota (1), for ten. 
After this, lota and Alpha together (TA) are used for eleven; Iota and 
Vita (1B), for twelve; and so on with the other letters and certain in- 
tercalations, which I omit for brevity’s sake. 
al the second book of the Epigrammata of Martial, Alpha is used, as 
is said of the number of Greek letters, for principal and first, where 
it is written:— 


Quem non lacernis Publius meus vincit, 
Non ipse Codrus, Alpha penulatorum.* Pacs 


Ausonius, too, in his Epigrammata, where he writes, Ad Eunum pada- 
. gogum Liguritorem,t mentions Alpha; but I will pass him by, because eine Magnus ee 
; À : ; : nius (C.310-394), a Chris- 
his words are immodest, and go on to say that A, which is equivalent ERG om ot ih 
to Alpha, and which is written with the same character, is put first in Gratian. The Epigram re- 


the alphabetical order more fitly than any other letter. ferred to is LXxt. 


Is a voicet & therefore is called a vowel, & must be pronounced,— __ ‘Voix,’ Latin, vox. «A 

as Martianus Capella says in his second book, De Nuprijs ‘Philo- sera ena oe 
logia;—Sub hiatu oris congruo solo spiritu;* it must be pronounced with seme definite configur sen 
the mouth open, & with a suitable breathing. It may be a whole sylla-  #hesuperglottal passages. — 
ble, and sometimes a whole word, as well in Latin as in French. As we eee imer of ‘Phonetics,’ 
say in Latin: Non auertas faciem tuam a me; and in French: On dit que re 


lhomme a vingt ans beau peult eStre. I] doibt aussi a trente, fort aparoistre. 


Is sometimesan interjection, & a manifestation of the love we have 
in our hearts for something to which we are inclined; and then it 
takes with & after it the sign of breathing; as in saying with Virgil: — 


Hic inter densas corylos, modo namque gemellos 
Spem gerens, ah, silice in nuda connixa reliquit;§ § Bucolics, 1, 14. 8 


and in French:— 


Ah, fringans yeulx volages et mondains 
Voz fins regards vous font [sont] de ioye plains.“ 


Priscianus, in his first book,wherein he treats De accidentibus litera, tells 
us why the aspirate is placed after the vowel A, in the interjection 4h, 


His) 


} ‘-Absconse et omaqueuse; 
literally, ‘hidden (Latin ab- 
scondita) and from the stom- 
ach.’ The lat qualification 
is not in the Latin which the 
author is supposed to be trans- 
lating. 


t The pointinPlautus’ s play 
is, of course, that the three let- 
ters spell amo, ‘I love.’ 


80 CHAMP FLEURY 


rather than before it, saying that the complete word ise Aha,as in Vaha. 
His words are as follows: Queritur cur in Vah et Ah post vocales ponitur 
aspiratio; et dicimus quod apocopa fatla est extrema vocalis cui praponeba- 
tur aspivatio,nam perfetla Vaha et-Aha sunt. Ideo abscissione fatla extrema 
vocalis, tamen aspiratio mansit ex superiore pendens vocali. Quia suum est in- 


* teriectionis voce abscondita proferri.* That is to say, “The question is asked, 


why in Vzh and in Ab the aspirate is placed after the vowel, seeing that 
Vaha and Aba are complete words; and to this we reply that there is 
here an apocope (that is,a cutting off of the last vowel), leaving the 
aspirate attached to the preceding one. For it is the attribute and nature 
of the interjection to be pronounced in a veiledt voice.’ Plautus, in his 
comedy Mercator, uses the A substantively, and as a letter taken fora 
number, when he introduces Demipho saying: Hodie ire in ludum oc- 
ceepi literarium, Lysimache: ternas scio jam, A. M. 0. That is to say: ‘Lysi- 
machus, to-day I began to go to school; I know three letters already— 
A. M. O'i 

HE A combined with another vowel makes a diphthong, that is 

to say,a syllable containing two vowels; and this in Greek & Latin 
alike. But in French I find more than two vowels together in a syllable 
and diphthong, as I could easily prove did I not choose rather to pass 
on, for brevity’s sake. 

Efore I proceed, however, I would at this point earnestly counsel 

printers and writers concerning this diphthong AE, and say that it 
should be written in such wise that the A and E are separated at the 
top & joined at their base. When they are written in a running hand, 
and not capitals, as I have already said, they should be closely joined 
together. Wherein Frobenius and almost all other printers have gone 
astray hitherto, when they have joined capital A and E together in 
this manner, Æ, in which the one or the other must needs be changed 
from its true form & shape. For if the A be set upright, the E, being 
joined to the said A, will be tipped up; or, in like manner, if the E be 
set straight, the A, being joined tothe E, 
will be tipped up, and will have its first 
leg outside its proper line,which is con- i. 
trary to the art of fashioning the Attic 
letter,which shouldalwaysbe complete 
in itself,and stand perpendicularly ona 
transverse horizontal line. 


« de Tdi Tire ue Url ee ee ee et Es S  é ‘| un c=. = PSN MS + > eS CNT oe ee, ih * dre 


THE THIRD BOOK 


HentheEissetuprightona hor- 
izontal line, & the A is joined to 
it at the top, the said A is moved away 
from the said horizontal line,as you see % 
in this drawing. 
F, then, you would write and fashion 
properly this diphthong A & E, make 
it in the manner and form here shown, and you will, without doubt, 
find the reason therefor to be good. And if some one replies that the 
other letters should be so placed, one joined to another, say that it isnot 
so, but that they must beleftatfull 
liberty, separated from oneanother 
by at least the width of an I; & that 
the A, forming a diphthong with 
the E, should have no intermedi- 
ate space at its foot,to which the E, 
as I have said, should be joined. 
Return to our letters, & proceed to design and write and draw them 
all, one after the other, with the kindly favour of Our Lord God. 
First of all, then, in good time, and in the name of God, we shall make 
a Cross, which, as I have said before, shall be of two lines, one perpen- 
dicular and the other transverse and horizontal, to give us good luck 
and a favourable beginning for our letters, & toaid in drawing themas 
is meet according to Rule & Compass. This Cross must be as high as it 
is broad, and as broad as high, in order to its being placed in an equilat- 
eral square, wherein we shall make & fashion each letter in its turn, it 
being divided, truly & exactly, into eleven perpendicular lines & other 
eleven horizontal lines, cross-wise, which will make a hundred small 
equilateral squares, of such size that the breadth of one—and of what- 
soever one you may choose—will be the pattern and fixed measure of 
the breadth of the leg of the letter that we desire to make between two 
parallel lines, according to the space that we may choose to place be- 
tween them. For, by keeping our proportionate number 
of eleven lines, we can make the Attic letter 
as large or as small as we please. 
The said Cross, & the 
said Square 
should be in the form that follows. 


eee + 


* Lung sera noir, et a len- 
droit, lautre sera blanc, et a 
lenvers. 


82 CHAMP BLEURY 


CROSS FORMED OF A PER- ‘THE ARENA AND FIELD OF 

PENDICULAR LINE AND AN — EXERCISE FOR MAKING AT- 

EQUAL HORIZONTAL LINE . TIC LETTERS IN DUES 
AT RIGHT ANGLES. BER AND SIZE. 


+++ 


MERE. ES 
BARRE eo 


I Might, it is true, have begun with the point and the line, which are, 
as I have said at the beginning of the Second Book, the foundation 
of the measurement of every figure; but I chose to begin with the Cross, 
for the reasons I have given heretofore. The Square that you see beside 
the Cross is the arena and field of exercise of our studious purpose to 
make each one of our Attic letters. You see therein eleven perpendic- 
ular lines and as many transverse ones, cross-wise, which make for you 
ten times ten small squares—one hundred in all. The breadth of one, 
as I have said, is the thickness of the leg of the letter you propose to 
make. And observe, that when it shall be your pleasure to try to make 
an Attic letter, you must before all else make a Square of the height 
that you wish to give it; then place a cross in the centre, & thereafter the 
other lines,as many on the one sideas on the other, at equal intervals, in 
such wise that the Square shall be equally divided, as I have said, by 
eleven perpendicular and as many horizontal lines, Or, if you prefer, 
draw your Cross, and then, around it, your Square divided equally, as 
I have many times said, 

N this wise, then, on a square divided as above, we will draw our first 

letter, A; but, to agree with what I have hereinbefore written,we will 
draw it in three ways, that is, three As, of which one shall be black and 
in the right position; another shall be white, and reversed;* & the third 
shall be shown with a Compass and a Rule (which is called in Latin, 
Radius), to show that every Attic letter must be drawn with the com- 
pass and the rule. 


eae es 


Biv LEEK DA BOOK 83 


aN: 


IX 


HE letter A, here twice drawn in its square, and formed of the I 

alone, is as broad as it is high, that is to say, of ten units* of breadth 
and ten of height, contained between eleven perpendicular & as many 
horizontal lines. To draw it properly, five turns of the compass are 
needed, for describing which I have marked the centres with the sign+ 
where the fixed foot of the compass should be placed, in order to de- 
scribe the circumference. Observe, besides,that I place this same sign+, 
outside the square, on the perpendicular median line of the aspirate 
H, of the I, the O, the S, the X,and the Z, not for the foot of the com- 
pass to be placed thereon, but to show that there is the top of the said 
letters, which are almost the same at top & bottom. There is, however, 
& must be, some difference, except in the O, the outer circumference 
of which is entirely uniform. A is in shape pyramidal and triangular, 
in accordance with natural reason, We see that things built up to a 
point are more solid and durable than those which are as broad at the 
top as at the bottom. In another aspect, the A is somewhat in the shape 
of a compass; its two feet represent the feet of the compass, & the top 
the joint. The cross-bar of the A signifies a rule: a covert indication 
that, properly to design and draw Attic letters, the compass & the rule 
are necessarily required. Furthermore, A has its legs thickened & fur- 
nished with feet,—just as a man has his legs and feet for walking and 
passing on,—to tell us covertly that from it, the first letter in alphabet- 
ical order, we must pass on to B, & C, & all the other letters according 
to their arrangement. A must be pronounced with the mouth open, & 
as I have said before, where Martianus Capella is quoted—sub hiatu oris 
congruo solo spirit. \N hich thing the Italians observe with care, not only 


* Corps. 


* The book was printed about 
1470 by an anonymous printer. 


+ The passage in brackets is 
not in the Latin. 


84 CHAMP FLEURY 


in Latin, but in their own vernacular, wherein most of their words end 


in A; as when they say: una charta, una bella dona, mya sorella, and a 


thousand other like things. For which reason, when they consort with | 


Italians, as at the fairs and banquets of Lyon, the Lyonnais ladies often 
courteously pronounce E like A, as when they say: Choma vous choma 
chat affeta, and many other like words, which I omit for brevity’s sake. 
On the contrary, the ladies of Paris very often pronounce A like E, 
as when they say: Mon mery eff a la porte de Perts, ou il se fasct peier, in- 
stead of saying: Mon mary eft a la porte de Paris, ou il se faict pacer. This 
manner of speaking comes from being accustomed to it in childhood. 
The English, too, have this vice of pronouncing A like E, at least when 
they speak in Latin, when they say: Domine, kenis intreuit kemerem, et 
comedit totes kernes qua erent in erke, lesus Merie, quid feciemus ; instead of 
saying: “Domine, canis intrauit cameram, et comedit totas carnes que erant 
in archa, lesus Maria, quid faciemus. This vice is excusable in them be- 
cause of the difficulty of their enunciation, which comes mostly from 
the depths of their throat, emerging in a narrow space between their 
teeth. Whoever would learn to pronounce A properly, let him divert 
himselfa little by reading the second book ofa work byanauthornamed 
Galeotus Martius Narniensis, entitled De Homine, at the place where 
he treats ‘De literis, and he will there find set forth very clearly and at 
length its true pronunciation where he says: A ex duabus lineis constat, 
qua suo contattuangulum con$tituunt acutum,spivitum ab vtraque parte palati 
emanentem indicant. Que vero per transuersum posita est, certam mensuram 
hiatus ostendit, quanto opus est in huius elementi enunciatione,* Vhat is to say; 
‘A is formed of two lines which touch at the upper end and make an 
acute angle. And therefore it isa symbol of the voice coming forth be- 
tween the two parts of the palate [& upper concavity of the mouth ].+ 
The line which is placed cross-wise 
gives also the exact measure of the 
hiatus required in pronouncing this 
letter and vowel A.’ Thus the cross- 
bar of the A signifies that it should 
be pronounced with the mouth not 
too far open or too much closed. 


HE second A which [have prom- 


ised,and have drawn reversed, as 


ee De. RE IT ee Pre 


THE THIRD BOOK 85 


you see it in this figure, is made in every respect and everywhere like 
the preceding one, except that the thick leg is in this case the first one, 
and in the other it is the last. Beware lest you conclude hastily that it is 
not reversed ; for I have known many a man who made it thus reversed 
for the preceding one, which is in the right position. This one is thus 
made to assist and give information to the goldsmiths and engravers, 
who, with their burin, graver, or other tool, engrave and cut the Attic 
letters reversed,—to the left, as they say,—so that they will be right 
when they are printed and presented in their proper & seemly aspect. 
I have purposely made it all white, & its square black,—just the oppo- 
site of the other,—to the end that you may not go astray between them. 
For, as Ihave said, I have seen and still see many who go astray. Before 
the printed letter is complete it is made twice reversed & twice right. It 
is reversed the first time in the steel punches, in which the letter is to 
the left; the matrices have the letter right; the letter of cast metal is, like 
the said punches, reversed. And, lastly, on the printed page, the letter 
appears in the right position, and in the aspect requisite for reading 
currently. I have forgotten to say that the thick leg of the A isas one of 
the units of its square in breadth, and the other leg a third of a unit. 
The cross-bar should be of two thirds of the breadth of the said thick 


leg, as you can see in the figures hereinbefore drawn & proportioned. 


Ursuant to what I have said, I 

have here designed and drawn an 
A wherein a Compassand a Rule are 
shown; or, if you would express it 
otherwise, say that [have madean A 
with a Compass and a Rule accord- 
ing to the secret teaching of the wise 
Ancients, who, in order to lead us to 
make the Attic letter properly, did 
fashion the first of their letters in the 
image and representation of the two 
unerring tools which are necessary and requisite for making well, not 
only the Attic letter, but also the Jettre de forme,and every other. Among 
all hand-tools the Compass is King & the Rule, Queen; that is to say, 
they are the two noblest & most powerful, below which all other tools 
and all well-balanced and fitly made things are equal, 


86 CHAMP FLEURY 7 
if Might be pardoned for singing the praises & the perfection of the 


said Compass and Rule, but I will leave it for some other more stu- 
dious than I am, to pass the time in so doing, In this place I shall say 
nothing more, except that no man will ever write well in Attic or any 
other letter, without Compass or without Rule; and that in all things 
that lack due proportion, which depends upon Compass and Rule, 
there is neither order nor good sense. Wherefore, then, O noble lords 
and devoted lovers of Learning, love the Compass & the Rule, divert- 
ing yourselves therewith & exercising yourselves in their use, in order 
to learn the reason and the truth of all excellent things. The Italians, 
who are supreme in Perspective, Painting, and Image-making, have 
always in their hands the Compass & the Rule; therefore they are the 
most perfect in all Christendom in working with the graver, in repre- 
senting nature, and in fitly portraying light and shade. They have in 
addition this charm, that they are cool & studious, moderate in drink- 
ing and eating & speaking heedlessly,and not inclined to go too much 
into company, by which means they learn better and more surely, and 
acquire reputation, which they regard as no small matter. We have 
not so many fine qualities in this sort as they have, & so we find no one 
on this side of the mountains to be compared to the late Messire Leo- 
nardo da Vinci, or Donatello, or Raphael of Urbino, or Michelangelo. 
Ido not mean to say that there are no great and good minds among 
us, but that there is lack of use of the Compass and the Rule. 


Il Return to my A, made with the compass and a rule, and beg those 
who read this little work not to think that I have thus excogitated it 
and drawn it to make a puzzle of it,and to make them sweat over it, 
but rather to counsel them with words of good sense, and to show them 
by touch and sight that the true Attic letter must necessarily, as I have 
said, be made with the rule and the compass. | 


Efore I go on to describe and draw the second letter in alphabetical 
order, which is B, I would say here, in conclusion, as I have already 
said, that A, if it be made according to art, must have its right leg as 
thick as the tenth part of its height, which is the breadth of one of the 
ten units contained between the eleven equidistant lines drawn in its 
square, and not as thick as the ninth part of its height, as Frere Lucas 
Paciolus of Bourg Sainct-Sepulchre says in the Divina proportione which 


THE THIRD BOOK 87 


he says that he wrote. His own words in vulgar Italian are as follows: 
Questa letera À si caua del tondo, e del suo quadro. La gamba da man drita vol 
esser grossa de la noue parti luna de laltexa.* That is to say: “This letter A 
is partly rounded and partly square. The right leg must be as thick as 
one of nine parts of its height.’ He divides his square into only nine 
parts & gives no reason therefor; wherefore, under correction, it seems 
to me that he speaks ignorantly, going astray with the very first letter, 
& so with all the rest. I have been told that all that he did in this matter 
he took secretly from the late Messire Leonardo da Vinci, who was a 
great mathematician, painter, and image-maker. Sigismund Fante,t a 
nobleman of Ferrara, who, as I have said, strives to teach how to make 
divers sorts of letters, gives no reasons for the proportions of his said 
letters, especially for the Antique letter. He, too, has gone astray in the 
A, the E, the L, the Q, the S, the T, and the X, which are not made as 
they should be, either in dimensions or in shape. The keen eye of the 
learned & studious man will be able easily to perceive this in the book 
which the said Sigismund has printed, entitled Thesauro de Scrittori. 


Have divided my square into ten parts, which I call units, contained 
between eleven perpendicular and as many horizontal lines; and I 
gave my reasons for so doing in the Second Book, in several passages, 
when I was speaking of the nine Muses, & Apollo,who makes the tenth. 
Whether I have said well or no, I leave to good students and philoso- 
phers, both naturalist and poetic. I do not mean to place myself before 
the Italians, but I have said thereon what seems to me apt to incite alert 
minds to do better, if such is their pleasure and if they can. In addition 
to all that I have said, observe that for the rounded corners of the legs 
both at the top and at the base, and for the curved parts of the letters, 
I make a sign like this, +, to show where the fixed point of the com- 
pass must be placed to make the said corners and curves, as well within 
as outside the letters, as I have done in the first A in this Third Book, 
which has one at the top & four by the two feet. The aforementioned 
Paciolus says no word of this,nor does any other author whom I have 
ever seen or heard of. When hereafter I shall say, ‘This letter is made 
‘with this or that number of centres,’ it will mean that it will be neces- 
sary so many times to use the compass to draw an interior or exterior 
circle coinciding with and joined to the straight or broken lines which 
it may haply be necessary to make. 


* See Note 26. 


+ See Note 27. 


88 | CHAMP: FLEURY 


HE letter B, here drawn, and composed of the Iand the O, is ten 

units in height and seven in breadth,with seven curved lines, some 
inside and some outside; & I have made seven little crosses, +,at which 
to place the foot of the compass, in order to draw the corresponding 
circles. The curve below should be broader by one unit than that above, 
and the dividing line should fall on the central horizontal line of the 
square, asin all the other letters that follow. Some ancient writers made 
the B with only six turns of the compass, as I have indicated in the 
black B, leaving the corner at the foot of the leg,within the larger divi- 
sion, without a curve and turn of the compass. Make that corner curved 
or not, as you please. Says Martianus Capella, in De Nuptijs Philologia, 
the third book: B, labris per spiritus impetum reclusis dicimus; that is to 
say: ‘ We pronounce (or should pronounce) the B with our lips partly 
open, by force of the expulsion of our breath.’ B in Greek is called 
Vita, and is pronounced like V consonant, as when they pronounce 
BaçBagoo, Varvaros,and Baba, Vava. Which pronunciation the Gascons 
retain in many words; as, when they mean to say, ‘lay beu de bon vin, 
they say, ‘Iay veu de von bin, In like manner, in Latin: ‘Non in solo 
pane bibit homo, for ‘vivit homo.’ And in thus speaking, the meaning 
in good French and good Latin is often perverted, as you see in the 
examples quoted —Iay veu for Lay beu and bibit for vivit. They do many 
other inconsistent things; as when they say ‘ung veau bieillard, for ‘ung 
beau vieillard,’ Instead of V consonant, they say B, and instead of B, V 
consonant. When M in Greek—that is to say, M—comes before Pi, 
—that is, before P;—the is pronounced as the Latins and we pro- 
nounce B. The Greeks write Aaunac & Ileunu, with Pi,—and say ‘Lam- 


Phin IRD BOOK 89 


bas’ and ‘Pembo.’ The Gascons pronounce B like V consonant, not only 
in French, but in Latin: as when they say ‘Vona dies’ for ‘Bona dies, 
‘Bibat Faustus’ for ‘Vivat Faustus, ‘Beni ad me et vives’ for ‘Veni ad 
me et bibes.’ Because they use V consonant so often in their words, it 
would seem that the Latins call them Vascones rather than Gascones, to 
make covert reference thereto. 


Have seen Germans, too, who used P for B when they spoke in 

French, as when, wishing to say, ‘Vela vne bien belle et bonne beste, 
they said,‘Vela vne pien pelle et ponne peste.’ This fault is of common 
occurrence with them. 


Pass on, and come to the fulfillment of my promise, wherein I said, 
at the end of the Second Book, that, to show that all our Attic let- 
ters are made from the I and the O, I would drawa B in such wise that 
those letters could be seen therein. The figure is that which comes next. 


Le this figure & drawing you can see how, as I have said many times 
heretofore, the I and the O, and 

chiefly the Lare the pattern, and the 
two letters from which all the other 
Attic lettersare made and fashioned. 
Inthis B, observe that the straight leg 
is an I, which I have left in white, to 
show it more plainly; and, likewise, 
the O in the lower division is white, 
and the rest of the B black; so that, 
if you will fill out the white Iand O 
in black, they will make the B com- 
plete and perfect, leaving white a little of the curve of the O, on the 
inner side, which touches the foot of the I. 


O make this figure, we must have eleven centres whereon to place 
the foot of the compass to draw the circumferences, of which cen- 
tres I have marked the places in their squares. In the black B which I 
drew above, there were only six, which were all that it needed; but in 
this one there are more, because of the said I and the O, which have 
their whole shapes & figures there, without injury to the said B, which 


* The first two verses are tak- 
en from Ovid's ‘Ars -Amo- 
ris, the third from Horace's 
Odes, 1v, 2, 50, and the lat 
two from (odrus Urseus. See 


notes on page 23, also Note22. 


In the line from Horace, the 
correct reading is ‘dicemus,’ 
and in the last line ‘Gaudi- 
amus for “Dicatis.’ 


90 CHAMPIELEURTYT 


is made and fashioned from them. And because we now perceive the 
said Iand O to be the pattern for the other letters, therefore, asa token 
of joy,— 


Dicite Io Pæan, 

Et Io bis dicite Pæan. 

Non semel dicatis Io triumphe. 
To, Io, 

Dicatis Io, Io, dulces homeriaci.* 


While the glad song resounds, I will come to the letter C, and will 


draw it inthe following form. 


His letter C, drawn in its square,and in its due proportions, being 

of the height of the A & B, is made of a broken O, and is but nine 
units in breadth. The compass requires six centres to produce it in its 
entire circumference. Observe that it is composed of the six circles in- 
scribed by the compass and two straight lines. The upper line is verti- 
cal; the lower line is oblique, ending in an acute angle. Some make the 
C with a sharp point below, and to do this it is well to place one foot of 
the compass at the top of the seventh perpendicular lineand the other 
at the base of the interior curve,as you can see in the figure following. 


THE THIRD BOOK 91 


HE C is a purely Latin letter; for the Greeks have, instead of C, 

Cappa (K) which Cappa (K) the Latins have stolen; and Priscian 
says that the aforesaid Latins hold it as a superfluous and redundant 
letter,when he remarks, when he is writing De literarum potestate,in his 
first book: K superuacua est, vt supra diximus, que quanuis scribatur nullam 
aliam vim habet quam C.* That is to say, ‘K is a superfluous letter, as 
we have said above, which, however it may be written, has no other 
force than C. The Greeks write Kanoo and Kuuvroo, the Latins Cacus 
and Cocytus. As Martianus Capella has it, C super molaribus lingua ex- 
trema appulsis exprimitur. ‘It is pronounced by pressing both sides of 
the tongue against the large teeth which we call molars.’ The ancient 
Latins very often wrote Q instead of C; as in Quur and Quoi, for Cur 
and Cuz. Sometimes, too, they wrote CE at the end of all cases of the 
demonstrative pronouns beginning with the aspirate; as in Hicce, Hacce, 
Hocce; and the poets often elided the final E, and wrote Hicc, Hacc, 
Hocc, as Virgil did when he wrote: — 


Hocc erat alma parens quod me per tela per hostes 


Eripis.t 


Hocc, in the verse quoted, is placed as if the O were long in quantity 
because of the two C’s coming after it. Priscian attests it in his twelfth 
book, wherein he treats De figura pronominum, when he says: ‘Ce, quoque 
solebant per omnes casus vetustissimi addere articularibus vel demonstratiuis 
Pronominibus, hoc e$t ab aspiratione incipientibus, vt hicce, hace, hocce, unde 
hoc quasi duabus consonantibus CC, sequentibus Poetae solent producere ; ut 


Hocc erat alma parens, quod me per tela per hostes 


Eripis. 


* 1, vu, 48. 


+ Æneid',11, 664.T his form 
is found in certain inferior 
manuscripts, but was proba- 
bly never used by Virgil. In 
one MS. of the School of 
Tours ‘hoc’ is written with 
a second c over the other one. 
The original text bas ‘ignis’ 
for ‘hostes.’ 


*x11, VI,25. The verse of the 
‘Andria’ quoted by Priscian 


45 Wi, 1,1. 


92 CHAMP FLEURY 


Et sic in antiquissimis codicibus inueniunt bis C scriptum, quomodo, vt apud 
Terentium in Andria,— 


Hoccine est credibile aut memorabile.’* 


HE Italians, according to their excellent custom, make C soft,and 

as if the syllable in which it stands were written with the aspirate 
H, both in Latin and in their vernacular. And this only before the two 
vowels E and I, & before the diphthong AE in Latin. They write, Ma 
done Felice a una cicatrice, and say, ‘Ma done Feliche a vna chicatriche, 
In Latin, they write Casar, Celius and Cicero,and pronounce, ‘Chæsar, . 
‘Chelius, and ‘Chichero,” Which thing we do not follow either in our 
pronunciation of the French tongue, or of the Latin. But the Picards 
are much addicted to it in many words of their dialect. As when the 
mean to say Cela and Cecy, they say, ‘Chela’ and ‘Chechy,’ as if there 
were in the spelling an aspirate H before the vowel E and before IL Y ]. 
On the contrary, where the true Frenchman both writes & pronounces 
the aspirate before A and O, as in ‘Chanoine’ & ‘Chose,’ the Picard says 
‘Canon’ and ‘Cose,’ The Frenchman says ‘vng Chien,’ ‘vng Chat, and 
‘vne Mouche, and the Picard, ‘vng Quien,’ ‘vng Cat, & ‘vne Mouque.’ 
The Picard pronounces C before V LU ] as we do, in saying, ‘Cuydez 
vous que ie soye Crapot deau?’ without giving the sound of the as- 
pirate. But he says,‘De chu monde, both writing and pronouncing the 
aspirate H before the V. In Latin he pronounces the C better than we, 
for he makes it thick, &as if aspirated; but he does not write it with the 
aspirate. He says ‘Amiche, and ‘Sochie, and ‘Chichero erat pater elo- 


" quentiz;’ but he writes ‘Amice,’ ‘Socie,’ ‘Cicero erat pater eloquentiz.’ 


Alone among all the people of France the Picard pronounces 
the C very well. And the better to prove it, and because 
of the quaintness of the language and the pronun- 
ciation, and the divine talent of the Picard 
writer & poet who made it, I will here 
quote & set down an epitaph 
in the Picard tongue, 
wherein methinks 
you will find 
a certain 
grace, 


EME URIRDYBOOK 93 


An ancient Epitaph in the Picard tongue, which may 
be seen, as I have been told, in the great cemetery of 
Saint Denis in the noble city of Amiens. 


Soubz moy pierre Qui apres Qui porissent 
Chi gist Pierre Trespassa Vers norissent 
De Machy Et passa Etattendent 
Quon a chi De chu monde Quilz reprendent 
Mort boute Dieu la munde. Soubz chez lames 
Se bonte Tant vesquirent Corps et ames 
Dieu luy sache Quilz acquirent Pour aller 

Veoir en fache Vnze enfans, Et voler 
Sespousee Bruns, blondz, blancs. Es saincts chieux 
Est posee _ Or sont morts Che doint Dieux. 
Chi empres Tous ches corps Amen. 


I have written the aspirate H in the words of this Epitaph, to show 
how the Picard pronounces C soft before E and I, as the Italians do. 


Alone among the Mutes has this quality, that it makes the vowel 
which precedes it in a Latin syllable long in metrical quantity: as 
in hoc, hac, sic, and hic when it is an adverb; for, when it is a pronoun, it 
may be short, as at the end of the sixth book of the Æwid of Virgil, 


where he wrote :— 
Hic vir hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis. 


Before O, in pronouncing French, is sometimes hard, as in Coquin, 
Coquard, Coq, Coquillard ; & sometimes soft, as in Garcon, Macon, 
Facon, Francois, and other like words. 


Ome persons make the C as if it were an O cut through the curve 
on the right, without spreading it; but, as I have seen this letter in 
Rome, in very old manuscripts, I open it out 
, below, giving it a graceful tail, 
which imparts charm 
and spirit. 


94 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE letter D, here drawn, and formed of the I and the O, has com- 
monly five centres, but according to some ancient writers only four, 
because they make a right angle at the foot of the leg on the inner side, 
as we see in the black letter. D is of equal height and breadth, touch- 
ing with its extremities the four outer lines of its square. I say again that 
it is formed of the I and the O, & I might draw it so; but I leave it for 
those to practise who may choose to divert themselves therewith. I have 
shown it above in writing of the B, to open the path to those who may 
wish to follow. It will suffice hereafter when I say that this letter or that 
letter is formed of the I and O together, or of the I alone, or of the 
O alone. 3 2 
The Latins made it as they pleased, as they did their C. In Greek it 
is triangular, and is called Delta. The Greeks held this said Delta in 
such high esteem that they made tt triangular in memory of the beauty 
of the island—also triangular—which the Nile, the miracle-working 
river of Egypt, makes at the place where Memphis lies; & of the shape 
of Sicily, which is called by the Greeks Triquetra, that is to say, having 
three mountains which form three corners & angles. And, in like man- 
ner, because of the division of the World, which was divided by very 
ancient writers into three parts, Asia, Africa, and Europe. They held 
it, Isay, in such great veneration that they placed it among the celestial 
symbols and called it Deltoton,as Hyginus clearly proves in his poem 
Astronomia, when he says: “Deltoton est sidus velut litera graca in trian- 
gulo posita. Itaque sic appellatur Mercurius supra caput Arietis statuisse 
exitimatur. Ideo vt obscuritas-Arietis huius splendore quo loco esset si gnifi- 


ae en eS a a Dr 


Ube PIRES BOOK 95 


caretur, et louis nomine, grace Mic, primam literam deformaret. Nonnulli 
ZÆgypti positionem, Alii qua Nilus terminaret. Æthiopiam esse, et Ægyp- 
tum dixerunt. Alii Siciliam figuratam putauerunt.Alij quod Orbem terra- 
rum superiores trifariam diuiserunt, tres angulos esse conSitutos dixerunt.* 

They made it triangular, in order to denote covertly that its shape 
is one of the noblest and most notable in geometry and commensura- 
tion, and one which is most essential for designing & drawing letters. 
The Latins made it straight in front, like an I, & rounded at the back, 
like an O, to show that it must be pronounced by striking the tongue 
against the front teeth; and this Martianus Capella attests when he 
says: D appulsu lingua circa superiores dentes innascitur. 

In Rome, at the Sapienza, that is, at the public school,and in many 
other places in Italy, I have heard many learned men pronounce it as 
if it had an E written after it: when they wished to say Quid, Quod, Ali- 
quid, they pronounced them Quide, Quode, Aliquide. And this means 
that we should pronounce it with the impetus of our tongue striking 
against our front teeth. They pronounced T also as if it had an Ein its 
train, saying Capute, Sincipute, for Caput and Sinciput ;  Amauite,Docuite, 
for Amauitand Docuit; & in like manner many another similar word. 
I would that we were as diligent in accustoming our children to pro- 
nounce rightly as the Italians are; that would give us great joy & hon- 
our. The ancient Latins wrote V for E before ND, in the gerunds and 
participles of the third conjugation: they said Scribundis and Legundis 

~ for Scribendis and Legendis. Terence says: In scribundis fabulis operam 
abutitur.t Priscian attests tt in his first book, when he says: 
Apud antiquissimos quoties ND sequuntur in his qua a 
Tertia Coniugatione nascuntur, loco E,V, scrip- 
tum inuenimus: vt faciundum, le- 
gundum, dicundum, vertun- 
dum, pro faciendum, 
legendum, dicen- 
dum, verten- 


dum. t 


HAS VI 3%, 


* Caius Julius Hyginus 
(A.D. 4), _Affronomia, 11,19. 


+ ‘Andria,’ Prologue, 5. 
The original bas : ‘In prolo- 
gis scribundis, etc.—‘In the 
writing of prologues he uses 
every effort.’ 


* The text has ‘ pressiore’— 
probably a misprint. 


96 CHAMP FLEURY 


| 


HE letter E, here drawn, formed from the I alone, & from which 

the F and the L can be made, is the second vowel in Greek & Latin 
alphabetical order, and is of the same shape and proportions both in 
Greek and in Latin. In lettre de forme, or bastarde, it must be made other- 
wise. The Latins borrowed it from the Greeks, as they did almost all 
the other letters. It is seven units and a half in breadth,and must have 
seven centres whereon to set the foot of the compass, as I have indicated 
them, in order to be made in its entirety. Some ancient writers make 
it without a curve and witha right angle on the inner side, below, as I 
have drawn it in the black E, beside the other, Martianus Capella says: 
E spiritus facit lingua paululum pressione.* ‘B, he says, ‘is pronounced by 
holding the tongue free between the palate & the upper concavity and 
the back of the mouth, causing the voice to come forth softly.’ I have 
written above how the Lyonnais women often pronounce A for E; also, 
the Normans E for Oy, & have given examples thereof. I find, further, 
that the Picard says V [U] for E, and pronounces it with the aspi- 
rate, saying ‘Chu garchon’ for ‘Ce garcon’ The Lorrainers, & the Scots, 
when speaking French,—or, at least, thinking that they are speaking it, 
—almost always omit to pronounce the E when it isat the end of words. 
The Lorrainers say : ‘Sus lherbet,’ ‘De ma muset, ‘Vne chansonet,’ ‘Ay 
dict mon comper,’ ‘Ma comer ioliet, and ‘Frisquet, quen dictes vous?” 
instead of saying: ‘Sus lherbete,’ ‘De ma musete, “Vne chansonnete, 
‘Ay dict mon compere, ‘Ma comere ioliete, and ‘Frisquete, quen dictes 
vous?’ Also, if they wish to say ‘Simone,’ they pronounce it ‘Simon’; 
‘Lione,’ ‘Lion’; ‘Bone,’ ‘Bon’; which is wrong in French, according to 


THE THIRD BOOK 97 


the Latin rule, which requires that the masculine gender be neither 
written nor spoken for the feminine, else one would be guilty of the 
vice of barbarism, which is not permissible in correct language. The 
Scots say: ‘Mon per et ma mer, et mes deux seurs Robin et Caterin 
mont escript vng pair de letr,’ instead of saying : ‘Mon pere et ma mere 
et mes deux seurs Robine et Caterine mont escript vne paire de letres.’ 
But such an error is to be forgiven them, because of their ignorance of 
the French language, and the difficulty of their wonted pronunciation 
in their mother-tongue. There may be many such vicious pronuncia- 
tions, which I leave to those more learned than I, to set them down in 
writing and to be well remembered; & I come to the Latins, who said 
in ancient times—not at all like the Picard—E for V [U], when they 
said and wrote Auger and - Augeratus, for-Augur & Auguratus. Priscian 
is a good witness to this in his first book, in the chapter “De Jéterarum 
commutatione, when he says: In Etransit V vt Pondus, Ponderis; Deierat, 
Peierat, pro Deiurat, Peiurat; Labrum, Labellum ; Sacrum, Sacellum. Anti- 
qui Auger, et Augeratus, pro_Augur et Auguratus dicebant.* 

Has three different sounds in French pronunciation and rhyme, 
E as the author of the ‘Book of the Game of Chess has shown very hap- 
pily in the chapter wherein he treats of the quality of rhymes, when 
he says what follows: ‘We must understand that this vowel called E 
can vary its sound, or be pronounced, in three ways, forasmuch as we 
have a single figure, or a single letter, which offers us all these three 
ways. The first is when we give it its proper sound—perfect, principal 
and premier, as we commonly call it; as when we say beaulte, or loyaulre. 
The second way is when, in pronouncing it, we draw it out beyond its 
proper sound aforesaid; just as when we say. Matinee or Robine, & other 
like words. And in these two cases the said vowel causes the number 
and measure of the metre to change, because the sound is in itself full 
and perfect, & thus it holdsand occupies the place of an entire syllable. 
And the third way is when, in pronouncing the said vowel, it does not 
_ have the vowel sound so plainly, and, as it were, loses its sound, as when 

we say, Nature, Creature, Villennie, or Felonnie, and so in many different 
forms. And in this case the said vowel, thus pronounced, does not cause 

the number of the preceding syllables to change, nor the measure. And 

sometimes all three of these ways of presenting the E are shown in a 
single word, just as if we should say: ‘Le ciel est bien estelle;? ‘Cest fin 
_oresmere; and many other like words.t 


* 1, VI, 36. 


+ This is all very far from 
clear—to the translator, at 
least; it might have beeneluci- 
dated somewhat, if Tory had 
invented a little earlier the 
use of accents to indicate the 
“manières of pronouncing ‘the 
said vowels’, and if some ofthe 
words that he or, inthis case, 
his authority uses had not 
vanished from the language. 


98 CHAMP FLEURY | 
EF When properly designed & written, contains within itself F & L. 


If you would make an F from the E,take away the horizontal stroke 
below, and you will have the F all made. If you would make an L, take 
from the E the two upper strokes, and the L will be left as it should be, 
in its natural likeness. You will be able to learn this by practising it, & 
by making use of the compass and the rule, as is required of those who 
love useful knowledge. However, to make your labour easier, I have 
made a drawing of them here, to the end that you may be the better 
able to understand my words to be true, as I have written them down. 


When Virgil says in his Priapeia :-— 


€ O, si iungas, temonemque insuper addas, 
Qui medium D, vult scindere pictus erit,# 


he does not mean, according to his conceit, and according to his words 
and purpose, that E should be made from the I, as I have said & taught, 
but something very different, as I well know; and yet I shall forbear 
to say what it is, because the thing intended is obscene—letting it be 
known to those who know it, & to be imagined or contemned by those 
who do not care to knowit. I have chosen to say a word thereon, in pass- 
ing, because it seems that Virgil means to teach howto make and write 
the E and the D, when he says, € O 54 éwngas, but does not do it; but 
do not you pause upon it. 


Bserve in passing that the greater number of French words con- 
tain the vowel E much more often than any other vowel or letter, 
as is made plain in writing or reading books in the French language. 


THE THIRD BOOK 99 


With the aspirate H before it, may bea sign & interjection of some 
emotion, & this as well in Latin as in French. Priscian is a witness 
thereof for the Latin, when he says in treating De Interiectione at the 
end of his fifth* book: Inter has ponunt etiam sonituum illiteratorum imi- 
tationes ; Vt risus, Haha, hehe, et Phi, Ha, et hoe, et hau. 
For examples in French, I refer the zealous student to Master Pierre 
Patelin46 and other good French authors. 


ire a 


ER 
ba 
a4 
ER 
a 
de 
5 
F1 


Role 


SS 
ea 
pala 
FE 
be 
mea 
an 
ore 
Es 
Ey 


Beas 
de 


HE letter F, here drawn, made from the I and derived from the 

E, is exactly six units in breadth, & must have six centres in order 
to be made properly,as I have indicated by marking them in the places 
where they should be. I have written justly in several passages of this 
book that every Attic letter should be wider at the top than at the bot- 
tom};+ but some one may say that the F,P,T,V, & Ypsilon contradict 
my conclusion. To which I reply that my statements are well founded, 
it being borne in mind & understood that these said letters F,P,T,V, 
and Y are not in themselves primary letters, but are taken from other 
letters,as F from E, P from B,T from the aspirate H,V from the Greek 
letter Lambda inverted, & Y from X, as you will see if it be your pleas- 
ure to try your hand at them. F is called the Holic Digamma in the 
first book of Priscian,t in many places, because it is made from two 
Gammas, a Greek letter, placed one above the other, thus:F. Digamma 
means two Gammas, or twice Gamma. Gamma in Greek is the letter 
for & in the stead of which we & the Latins use the letter G; but there 


*<_An error for fifteenth. The 


reference is XV, VII, 41. 


T° Plus large enchef qu'en pied.’ 
The context makes it clear that 
he has said here just the oppo- 
site of what he meant to say. 


t 1, Iv, 20. 


* Priscian, 1,1V, 21.47 


100 CHAMP FLEURY 


is a difference in the shape of the two letters; for the Gamma is made 
like an L with the lower arm at the top, thus: T. The G is made quite 
otherwise, & therefore it is purely a Latin letter. So, then,when a right 
Gamma is placed on another Gamma,we shall have our letter F, which 
is, as I have said, called by Priscian & other good authors, Digamma. 
Furthermore, it is called the Æolic Digamma, because the Æolians, 
who were among the most eminent nations of Greece, had it in fre- 
quent use, even the poets, as Priscian proves in his said first book, when 
he quotes the poet Alcman as saying: Kai xepa nugte da tov; and when 
he quotes the epigram that he sawand read in the dry valley near Con- 
stantinople, the which dry valley he calls in Greek Xegodogov. In the 
epitaph were the words: OgvaF ov Anuo E wv cal a wa Fiuv.* I find that 
the very ancient Latins often wrote F instead of V consonant; as in 
writing Folfo and Fifo, for Volvo and Vivo. As you can see in the ancient 
epitaph found at Lyons, in a vineyard. The said epitaph, as I have been 


told, is as follows: — 


ALIARTOS FY GELIDVS OPT Vii - 
INSVLANVS QVOI MAXVMA VIRTVS. 
HAIC LABOR BACCHICGQR 

QVAE CASTOR APVD ME CYMNERTS 
IN TENEBRIS CONDITA VTAGE 
CAECVTIEN TES OMOEI- 
NOSTRATEIS 

PRAITEREVNT. AGEDVM Sax 
LABORE FOUPIT ESRB ir 
COMMVNIS ESTMEREMRINMSNEN 
DEXTRO. HERCVLE IVPPLEERSS 
SENISSIMI CEREBRVM EFFODIE Iie 
NIHIL SACRVM, CVLMOS 

EXO MT eles 

NAVCIFACIENDOS OVOM ARVN 
SINT ET TRICAE, AT AEDEPOE 
KOINA OŒIAQN HANTA. 

ANNO MELLE TN Coe thr TR PAIN CS 
NEOMENIIS ROMANIS.» 


Herein there is the word Folfite, when it is said: —Agedum saxa labore 
folfite herculeo. Many other examples may be seen in the book of Epi- 
taphs of Ancient Rome, which I saw printed when I was in Rome. 


THE THIRD BOOK 101 


és Germans have the habit of pronouncing, and not of writing, 
F for V consonant, at least when they speak in Latin. If they would 
say, Ego bibi vinum vetus, they pronounce it, Exo bibi finum fetus; and 
this manner of pronunciation is peculiar to them, and vulgar, for the 
Latins,whom they ought to follow, do not pronounce it thus. It would 
seem that the Germans hold to this pronunciation because Priscian 
has written in his first book: Habet autem hac F litera hunc sonum quem 
nunc habet V loco consonantis posita.* 

Artianus Capella shows us how to pronounce F properly when 

he says: F dentes labrum inferius deprimentes lingua palatoque dulce- 
scit. ‘EF, he says, ‘is uttered softly with the tongue touching the palate, 
and the teeth pressing slightly on the lower lip.’ 


HE letter G here drawn, & made from the O & the I truncated, is 

nine & a half units in breadth, & requires for its fashioning eight 
turns of the compass, for which reason I have marked eight centres in 
their proper places. Master Simon Hayeneufve,whoiscommonly called 
Master Simon du Mans,t makes at the foot of the short leg of the Ga 
small half-circle, which gives it a very graceful aspect; but I have seen 
it in the Galleries of Pope Julius the Second, between the palace of St. 
Peter and the Belvedere, cut straight up & down;t make it, therefore, 
as you please. This Master Simon ts the greatest and most excellent 
craftsman in ancient architecture now living, that I know. He isa man 
of the church and of goodly life, gracious, and ready to serve one and 


* 1, III, 12. 48 


t See Note 29. 


t ‘Coupe a perpendicule’ ; that 
is,as Shown in the drawings, 
on the inner side. 


* I, VII, 39. 


102 CHAMP FLEURY 


all in designs & portraits in true antique style, which he makes so well 
that, if Vitruvius and Leon Baptiste Albert were living, they would 
award him the palm over all those on this side of the mountains. 

in Greek, is called Gamma; but, as I have said before, this Gam- 

ma is different in shape; for it is made as if an L were turned in 
such wise that what is at the bottom would be at the top, thus: F. G & 
Gamma have the same value in a syllable, except that Gamma, when 
placed before another Gamma, or before Chi (X), or before Cappa 
(K), or before =, is pronounced Gui, that is to say, like N. Example, 
Ayyedoo, Angelus ; Aynuea, Ancora; Ayxiouc, Anchises; Xoryé, Sphinx. 
And the reason for this Greek pronunciation is that Gui (N) is not 
written in Greek before ',K,X, =. The ancient Latins wrote, after the 
Greek manner, -Aggelus, Diphthoggus, using G for N, but pronounced 
Angelus & Diphthongus ; now the Latins and we write N before G,and 
say, as we write, Angelus and “Diphthongus. Priscian is a witness to this 
said ancient pronunciation in his first book, wherein he treats De lire- 
rarum commutatione, when he says: Et quidam tamen vetustissimé authores 
Romanorum, euphonia causa, G pro N scribebant ; vt Agchises, Agceps, 
Aggulus, Ag gens; quod ostendit Varro primo de Origine Lingua Latina his 
verbis ; Aggulus, Ag gens, Agguilla, Ig gerunt.* G in our language, as in 
Latin, sometimes requires a V LU] after it, sometimes not: — 4uguil- 
la, anguille; Imaginari and imaginer; corriger ; conge, plonge, abrege, rogue 
morgue, rigueur, langueur, regard, guisarmes, guise, and other like words, 
are examples of it. I find that when V LU] is interposed between G 
and Y, the V and Y are divided into two syllables, and when, instead 
of Y,there isan I, then G,V, and I make but one syllable. As when we 
say, ‘Monseigneur de Guyse vit a sa bonne guise.’ The pronunciation 
of G, says Martianus Capella, eff spiritus cum palato. It is pronounced 
by the voice issuing from the upper concavity of the mouth. The Ger- 
mans pronounce it before À, before O, & before V LU] very differently 
from the Italians and ourselves, for they give it the sound of I conso- 
nant, as, if they wished to say, Ego gaudeo Gabrielem gobiones Gandaui 
comparasse, they would pronounce it thus: Eto zaudeo Labrielem iobiones 
Landau comparasse, which pronunciation seems to me very strange be- 
cause of the great change that takes place, If they wished to say,Gaude- 
amus omnes in Domino; Nodus gordius erat insolubilis; and Gutturnium est 
vas guttatim ftilans;—they would say: laudeamus. . . Iordius. . . Iuttur- 
nium,and Iuttatim, which would seem to be words far removed from 


LE ee EER DABOOK 103 


true Latinity. Before E & before I, they pronounce it properly, saying: 
Germinauit radix lesse; Gigis anulus erat fatalis. But, as I have said, be- 


fore A, O, and V, they do not pronounce it Latinistically enough. 


G Has a close affinity with C—so close that very often it is pro- 
nounced where C is written; as we see in the words Creus and 
Caius, which are written with C and pronounced by G. Other words 
there are wherein G is written & pronounced instead of C,as Quadrin- 
genta and Quingenta, for Quadrincenta and Quincenta. The affinity of G 
with C and of C with G is something too well observed in Bourges, 
where I was born, for there are those in that place who pronounce Ignem, 
Lignum, and other like words as if instead of G there were a C—saying 
Icnem & Licnum; which words should not be so pronounced according 
to the Latin; for the Italians make the G very soft when it is between 
I and N. The Picards, contrary to the Germans, who pronounce I con- 
sonant for G, pronounce G instead of I consonant in some words; as, 
instead of saying, ‘Ma iambe sest rompue en nostre iardin, et y ay perdu 
mon chapeau iaulne,’ they say :‘Me gambe sest rompue en noz gardin, 
et y ay perdu men capiau gaulne.’ They say many other things, which 
I forbear to write for brevity’s sake. 

Esters & young lovers,who pass the time inventing devices or in appro- 
| reer themas if they had invented them, make of this letter Gand 
an A a fanciful device, making the A 
smallerthan the G & putting it with- 
in the G; then say that this means, 
‘ay grant appetit’ LI have a great ap- 
petite |; wherein neither spelling nor 
pronunciation is followed at all. But 
I pardon them & leave them to make 
merry in their young loves. The said 
large G and small A are disposed as 
in this drawing. 

HEY make many another of di- 

vers letters,as: K.V.K. A.B.,andsoon. L.XX. L. X.NA.L. fur P. 
L. sen alla. G sus L, mon cueur a V1. Quaten dexvous, natendez plus. Elle 
est tornee a tort, Vng asne y mord droit. In like manner, ‘Paix vng I vert selle, 
which is made of a paix,a pee L ac a saddle. And a thousand others, 
which I pass over. 


* Cela est appelle ung Resbuz, 
au quel on a resue, et fait on 
” resuerles autres.’ The play up- 
on words can hardly be repro- 
duced in translation. 


1 ‘Qui se font et pronuncent 
en Images et vocables fran- 
cots.’ 


t Picard for Jay. 


104 CHAMP FLEURY 


N such foolish trifles right orthography and true pronunciation are 
very often unregarded, and are the cause of an abuse which often 
impedes good minds in writing as they ought. 


Mong all those who ever conceived or made 
ciphers of letters, he who first made his 

of an S was the most proficient in French—at 
least, if he intended the application, and I be- 
lieve that he did, inasmuch as he did not make 
it of an Attic S, ora Greek, but of a French let- 
ter, called Jettre de forme, in which the S is thick, 
and aptly used in the signification of largesse, in 


the following shape. 


Evices which are not made by significant letters are made of pic- 
tures which indicate the conceit of the author, and these are 
called rebuses, whereon one has meditated and caused others to medi- 
tate.* Such pictures are either men, or women, beasts, birds, fishes, 
or other things, living or not, whereof I deem a rebus in four verses in 
French to be very well conceived, for all the words in the four verses 


aforesaid are represented in divers pictures, & we read, in substance, | 


this: — 


On me tient fol, faisant folle folye. 

Ainsi ie vis, puis ainsi ie folye. 

Fol entre folz, coquard entre mains vis, 
On me maintient, car follement ie vis. 


yee the rebus of the three dead men and three living is very well 
conceived. I find that there are Latin words which are drawn and 
to be read in pictures and in French words,} as Habe mortem pre oculis, 
and Non habebat mortem ante oculos; so, too, Cras habebo te. | know one in 
Greek that is very good, and of letters only; but they stand for com- 
mon Italian words; they are M.®.A.M.A, which means in Italian: 24 
fidelta mi lauda. In French the meaning is clear, but the French words 
do not agree with the letters nor with the Italian, for we say: Ma fide- 
lite me loue. That one of the diamond is good; and that in which the 
meaning 1s: Lay mis mon eat au derriere, is not bad, since it is repre- 
sented by a Gayt and a Mymonet; that is to say, translated from Picard 
into French: dun Singe qui taste de sa main a son derriere. Also that which 


a a. Ve a ee 


RO ee SRE ee ee, ee ee Ee 


THE THIRD BOOK 105 


says, A Besanson sept femmes a, is very ingenious, of which I forbear in 
this place to give the meaning. 

Could quote many others and thereof make a whole book ; but I will 

pass on now, and make room for the jesters and young lovers, who 
gladly amuse themselves with such dainty trifles, which, be it said, do 
not come into their minds without inspiration from above. Whereof 
theancient philosophers often held discourse & the poets sang,among 
whom Ovid, at the beginning of the sixth book of his Fasti, said for 
them and for the poets: — 


Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimis illo, 
Impetus hic sacræ semina mentis habet.* 


That is to say, ‘We poets and fantastics have within ourselves a divine 
inspiration, which excites us to merry conceits, and to execute them 
gracefully.’ 
HIS manner of conception, that is, of writing done by pictures, 
was originally invented by the Egyptians, who had all their cere- 
monies written down in this fashion, to the end that the common herd 
& the ignorant should not be able to understand or easily to learn their 
secrets & mysteries. [hese writings were called in Greek Hieroglyphica, 
that is to say, sacra scripta, sacred writings, which no one could under- 
stand without being a great philosopher, and one who could grasp the 
meaning and qualities of natural things. When they wished to repre- 
sent the year, they drew in portraiture or painting a dragon gnawing 
his tail; to represent liberality, they made the right hand open, and for 
niggardliness the hand closed. They represented a thousand other like 
excellent things by pictures, as you can read & learn in the twenty-fifth 
chapter of the ancient lessons of Cælius Rhodiginust and more fully 
in Orus Apollo, 5° who has set them down in a volume which you can 
find in Greek, if you will, and in Latin also, and which I have translated 
into French, and made a present thereof toa noble lord & good friend 
of mine. 
Nasmuch as I have descended to the subject of Devices, Rebuses, & 
Hieroglyphic writings, I propose here to set forth my own device 
and mark, because I find many persons desiring to understand it. 
Irst, there is an antique jar, which is broken, and through which is 
thrust a drill.t This broken jar (pot cassé) signifies our body, which 


is an earthen jar. The drill signifies Fate, which pierces and passes 


* Fasti, Vi, 5. The true text 
is ‘calescimus.’ 


} Lectionum Antiquarum, 
Es: 


1‘ Toret.’ Manifes#ly a play 
upon the author's name. 


* ‘Nothing too much.’ The 


commoner Latin version is ‘ne : 


quid nimis.’ The Greek epi- 
gramwas generally attributed 
to others of the Seven Sages 
than Pittacus namely, Chilo 
and Solon. 


+ That is, “Make haste 
slowly.’ 


Lata ze 


106 CHAMP:*PEEURY 


through the weak and the strong, Below this broken jar there isa book, 
closed by three chains and padlocks,which signifies that, after our body 
is broken by death, its life is closed by the three goddesses, the Fates. 
The book is so fast closed that that man does not live who isable to see 
anything therein, unless he knows the secret of the padlocks, & chiefly 
of the round padlock, which is locked and marked with letters. So that, 
after the book of our life is closed, there is no man who can open an 

part thereof, except him who knows its secrets. And He is God, who 
alone knows, both before and after our death, what has been, what is 
and what shall be. The branches and the flowers in the jar signify the 
virtues that our body may have had in itself during its life. The sun- 
beams above and beside the drill & the jar signify the inspiration that 
God gives us by enuring us to virtues and good deeds. Near the said 
broken jar there is written NON PLVS, two monosyllabic words, 
alike in French & in Latin, which mean what Pittacus said long years 
ago in his Greek: Mndev ayav, Néhil nimis,* let us not say or do any- 
thing beyond measure or reason, except in extreme need, aduersus quam 
nec Dij quidem pugnant; but let us say and do SIC VT VEL VT, 
that is to say,as we ought, or as well as we can. If we would fain do well, 
God will help us; and therefore I have written at the top: MENTI 
BONAE DEVS OCCVRRIT + that is to say, God goes forth 


to meet a well-disposed mind, and assists it.>* 


Ldus the Roman, printer at Venice, had his hieroglyphic mark, 
but he did not invent it, forasmuch as he borrowed it from the 
device of Augustus Cæsar, which was in Greek, Zrevde Beadewo, which 
is to say in Latin, Festina lente, or again, in a single Latin word, Matura; 
and in French, Haste toy a ton aise.+ This mark consisted of a ship’s 
anchor and around it a dolphin. The anchor signified slowness, and 
the dolphin haste, as who should say that a man must be moderate in 
affairs, in such wise that he be not in too great haste, nor too long or 
slow. Virgil gives us covert testimony that the same Augustus Casar 
had the anchor and dolphin in his device when, to remind him thereof, 
he says in the first book of his Aineid: Maturate fugam, regique hac di- 
cite vestro.t Let him who would see clearly into this matter, divert him- 
self by reading the first proverb of the second Chiliad of Erasmus; he 
will find it there, methinks, in abundance. My aforementioned Device 


and Mark is as follows: 


DHE CHIRD) BOOK 


MENTI BONAE 
PEVocOCeV RR UT, 


SIC, VT. VEL, VT. 
NON PLVS. 


UCH is my chosen Device & Mark as have meditated 
and conceived it, considering its moral significance, 
to give some useful admonition to the printers 

and booksellers of this country, to employ 
themselves in goodly conceptions, & in 
executing them agreeably, to show 
that their intelligence has not 
always been useless, but 
devoted to serving 
the public weal 
by working & 
living up- 
right- 
ly. 


107 


* The original text has 1— 
plainly a misprint. 


+1, 101, 8. In recent texts of 
Priscian, this passage reads 
quite differently. 


108 CHAMP. FLEURY. 


HE figure here designed & drawn, of an H* with eight centres, is 

ten units square—that is to say,as broad as it is high. The Gram- 
marians—and especially Priscian in his first book,wherein he treats De 
literarum potestate—say that it is not a letter, but the sign and symbol — 
to show when some vowel, or one of the four consonants C, P, R,T, 
should be pronounced thickly and in a full voice from the depths of 
the stomach. Priscian says: H, autem aspirationis eS nota, et nihil aliud 
habet litera, nisi figuram, et quod in vsu scribitur inter alias literas.t That 
is to say, ‘H is the symbol of the breathing, and has nothing else per- 
taining to a letter save the figure of one and [the fact] that by custom 
it is written among the other letters.’ 


Has so little effect upon the vowels that, if it be taken away, the 

sound will not be lessened; but it is not so with the four conso- 
nants, C,P,R,T. Examples of the vowels: Erennius, Oratius. Example 
of the consonants: Cremes for Chremes. And for this reason, as Priscian 
says in the passage quoted, the Greeks had separate characters for these 
said consonants when aspirated: for Th, they had ©; for Ph, ®; for Cd, 
X. The Rho is not changed in shape, but it takes a half-cross above it in 
capitals, and a curved line in small letters, which stands for the mark 
of breathing, as one can plainly see in the printings of the late excellent 
printer Aldus, whom God assoil. 


Ulus Gellius in the third chapter of the Second Book of his Nues 


Attica, says that H was inserted by the ancient writers in certain 


THE THIRD BOOK 109 


words to give thema firmer and stronger sound,when he says: H Jitera, 
siue tllam spiritum magis quam literam dici oportet, inserebant eam veteres 
nostra plerisque vocibus verborum firmandis roborandisque, vt sonus earum 
esset Viridior vegetiorque. Atque id videntur fecisse Studio et exemplo lingua 
Attica. Satis notum est Attiquos xOuv uçov. Multa itidem alia citra morem 
gentium Gracia caterarum inspirantis prima litera dixisse, sic lachrymas, 
sic spechulum, sic ahenum, sic vehemens, sic inchoare, sic helluari, sic halluci- 
navi, sic honera, sic honustum dixerunt. In his verbis omnibus litera seu spiritus 
istius nulla ratio visa est, nisi ut firmitas et vigor vocis quasi quibusdam 
neruis additis intenderetur.* That is to say:“Uhe letter H—or if it be more 
fitting to say so, the vocal breath—was inserted in many words by the 
ancient Romans to fortify and strengthen them, to the end that their 
sound should be firmer and lustier. These same ancients did this in 
imitation of the Athenians, in whose speech 1x6, Hpov and many other 
like words were aspirated, contrary to the custom of the other nations 
of Greece. Thus were aspirated lachryma, spechulum, ahenum, vehemens, 
inchoare, ballucinari, honera,and honustum. In all these words,there seems 
to be no reason for the breathing, unless it be to give them firmnessand 
strength, as if they were reinforced by the nerves.’ 


HE Romans represented the symbol of breathing in the exact 

form and shape of a Greek vowel called Ita—H. The Greeks made 
of their said vowel Ia two silent symbols like accents—to show that a 
vowel beginning a word, and the consonant Rho, also when beginning 
a word or doubled in the making of a noun or a verb, should be aspi- 
rated, or not. For by cutting the said vowel Ita through the middle into 
two perpendicular parts, the first part serves to show that the vowel, or 
the said consonant R/o, isaspirated, and the other part to show that the 
said vowel, or Rho, is not aspirated. The Iza is divided thus, FH, and its 
parts are placed over capital letters, as I have said, over vowels or Rho 
at the beginning of a word, and over Rho when it is doubled by joining 
two words or otherwise. 

HE resemblance of this Latin aspirate and the Greek vowel Iza is 

the reason why so many ignorant moderns, ignorant of the Greek 


language, have erred, & err every day, in the spelling—or in the proper , 


writing—of those two supreme and precious names, IESVS and 
CHRISTVS. For when writing them as abbreviations, they write 
IHESVS,} with a Latin breathing, and XPX, with a Latin X and P; 


* Nodtes Attica, 11, 11, ad 
init. The original has ‘H. 
litteram’ for ‘H. litera,’ and 
‘sepulcrum’ for ‘spechulum.’ 


+ He means, evidently, 1.H.S.5” 


110 CÉLANIPERIE EEE 


whereas, in Greek, IH= should be written with the vowel Ita, H, and 
XP with Chi and Rho. The error is due, as I have said, to the fact that 
Ita and the Latin aspirate are represented by the same figure, and that 
Chi and Rhoalso resemble the Latin X and P. For which reason I here 
beseech all well-purposed minds from this time on, when they would 
write the most holy & glorious name & surname of our Saviour, if they 
would write it in Latin, to hold to this spelling, IESVS, CHRIST VS 
without using therein any letters which are not required. And if they 
would abbreviate them, let them write them rather in Greek than 
otherwise, and this should be done thus: IHX, XP, wherein none 
other than purely Greek letters are required. The Greek vowel Iza, 
H, when it is changed into Latin, becomes E, long in quantity, as in 
that glorious name IHZOYE, IESVS, and a thousand other like 
words. Wherefore, we must write IESVS without any breathing, & 
CHRISTVS without X and without P. As for the Greek, from 


which the Latin is derived, there is none. 


HZ Xa 


le you would know more fully about the orthography of these two 

[ex names, Jesus and Christus, and see the true essence of all 
that I have written thereon, bestir yourself to read little treatise which 
Aldus has printed and entitled De Potestate Literarum Gracarum, in the 
chapter Quemadmodum Litera ac Diphthongi Graca in Latinum transfe- 
rantur* You will beable there to satisfy your wish, if it be your pleasure 
so to employ yourself. 


* Inthe treatise called ‘Gram- 
maticis Grace Isagoga,’ print- 
ed at the end of the 1507 edition 
of the ‘Grammatica.’ 


dise Latin aspirate is written by the Germans as a simple letter 
symbol, but they pronounce it twice over—more than the Latins 
and Italians do. For, if they intended to say: Heus heri habui herum hos- 
pitem, they would say, as if there were a double aspirate: Hheus bheri 
hhabui bherum bhospitem. And I marvel that they do not write it so, even 
as they write VV,,t of which they make use very often in words of their 
mother-tongue. They recall to my mind a man of long ago named 
Artus, who had the aspirate so ready to his hand and so familiar, that 


} See NE. D. under W. 


TRE HIR De BOOK 111 


he pronounced it where it was not proper to be pronounced. Where- 
fore that noble poet Catullus made this epigram against him. 


Chommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet 
Dicere, et hinsidias Arius insidias. 
Et tamen mirifice sperabat se esse locutum, 
Cum quantum poterat dixerat hinsidias. 
Credo sic mater, si liber auunculus eius. 
Sic maternus auus dixerat, atque auta, 
Hoc misso in Syriam requierant omnibus aures, 
Audibant eadem hæc leniter et leuiter. 
Nec sibi post illa metuebant talia verba, 
Cum subito affertur nuncius horribilis. 
Jonios fluctus postquam illuc Arius isset, 
Iam non Ionios esse, sed hionios.* 


HIS Arius, then, said chommoda, hinsidias, and hionios, with the 
aspirate; and he should not have done so. The said Germans do it 
from the habit they have of talking from the depth of their lungs and 
stomach. The Picards, as I have said before, pronounce it very well, 
with the C and without it. And I know no people in France whose 
tongues are more apt and expert in the proper pronunciation of Greek, 


Latin, and French, than the Picards. 


HIS aspirate is very ill pronounced by I know not what village 

grammarians in the two interjections, Ab & Vazh, which they pro- 
nounce Ache & Vache,as if the aspirate were, or ought to be, terminated 
by E; which cannot be, for the aspirate is neither vowel nor consonant, 
nor muté, nor liquid—consequently, no letter at all. So that it must be 
pronounced without any sound of its own, but only to follow the vowel 
to which it is added. Furthermore, Ab & Vah cannot, nor should, end 
in E, because they are interjections with their tails cut off, being, in 
full, Aha & Vaha. Of which thing, as I have said before, Priscian bears 
witness when he says in the chapter De Accidentibus Litera, of his first 
book: Oucritur cur in Vah, et Ah, pot vocales ponitur aspiratio, et dicimus 
quod Apocopa fata et extreme vocalis cui preponebatur aspiratio, nam per- 
feta Aha et Vaha sunt.t Pontanus,* in his first book, De Aspiratione, 
adds tothese Oba, which also drops its final A,and remains O. I gladly 


mention this, because I see many persons go astray therein; and their 


* Catullus, uxxxiv.53 


LAMPE 


* Eclogue 1, 15; 11, 69; VI, 


47; the true reading being‘ Ah’ 


in each case. 


+a, 16. 


t Verse 144. 


§ See Note 26. 


112 CHAMP FLEURY 


error causes the quantity of the syllable & the majesty of poetic metre 
to be perverted, As who should say in the first Eclogue of Virgil: — 
Spem gregis, ache, scilice in nuda connixa reliquit. 
And in the second: — 
Ache, Corydon, Corydon; que te dementia coepit? 
And in the sixth: — 


Ache, virgo infelix; qua te dementia coepit?* 


ESS would be to ruin the style and the metrical quantity of the 
King of Latin Poets, and for this reason we must pronounce Ab, 
& Vah, almost like A, a vowel issuing in full volume from the depths 
of the stomach. 
S Ihave said, the aspirate is nota letter; none the less it is, by poetic 
license, given place as a letter, & as it were, a double consonant, 


lengthening the quantity of the vowel that precedes it. As we find in 


Virgil, in the first book of the Ainezd, 


Posthabita colluisse Samo, hic illius arma 
Hic currus fuit.t 


mo hic is a spondee, that is to say, a metrical foot containing two long 
syllables; wherefore # is long in this place, not only by its nature, but 
as if h were a double consonant; and it cannot be combined with the 
vowel, as it often is. It appears asa simple consonant in the 47s Poctica 
of Horace, where it is said: Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.t 
The syllable before the aspirate is the third syllable of a dactyl, and 
short, and the de does not combine with the é following the aspirate. 
For him who would like to see the great value of the aspirate, as well at 
the beginning of words, as in the middle and at the end, very fully and 
gracefully set forth, Pontanus is a most satisfying author, in two excel- 
lent books that he has diligently composed, entitled De Aspiration. 
To design and draw our said aspirate as it should be done, the two legs 
must be made in every respect like I,and the cross-stroke upon the cen- 
tral horizontal line must be of one-third of the thickness of the said I. 
Which rule Frere Lucas Pactolus does not observe in the letters of his 
book entitled Diwina “Proportione, as those can see who may choose to 
look carefully.§ For in the A, the E, the F, and the H, he makes the 
cross-strokes too thin and too low, inasmuchas he puts them halfabove 
and half below the central horizontal line of his square. 


* a ais P = 
eee ey AE 


a ee ee ne PO, a 


= Re" a ut eee 


NS i 0 ta 


—= ON, 


PAS PHIRD BOOK 113 


is | 
PCA NY | | 


HE letter I here designed & drawn, in height ten times its thick- 
ness, contained between four centres, is three units broad at the 
head, & four at the foot,—that is to say, three whole ones, asat the head, 
and a half one on each side, to give it a firm seat and foundation, the 
better to support the head. And the reason therefor is derived from the 
natural posture of the human body, which, when it is on its feet, has its 
feet spread out over more space than the breadth of the head covers. A 
man stands more firmly when his feet are half-way apart, than when 
they are close together. So, then, our I must be broader at the foot than 
at the head. 
As I said many times in the Second Book, is the pattern, the rule, 
and the standard of all the other letters, for by its height & breadth, 
all the limbs, straight or curved, of all the said other letters are meas- 
ured and proportioned. The curved limbs follow the O; but even the 
O retains the thickness of the I in its two curved sides. 
Should be pronounced, as Martianus Capella says, Spiritu prope den- 
tibus pressis; that is to say, with the breath issuing between the partly 
closed teeth. The Flemings misuse it in Latin when another vowel 
comes after E. For they pronounce the E like an E and Y, asin saying: 
Deus, Deyus, meyus, ad te de luce vigilo. In Greek it is called Lota and is 
never aught else than a vowel; but in Latin and French it issometimes 
a vowel and sometimes a consonant. And again, when it is a conso- 
nant it is sometimes a simple and sometimes a double consonant. Ex- 
ample in Latin: Ibo iussus in maiorum adiutorium. Example in French: 
Item, Iehan le ieune sera ieudi adiourne.* This vowel Iota was stolen by 


* This discussion is, of course, 
academic merely, since the 
adoption of J for X consonant. 


* 11, 93, 4. The original has 
‘tollere’ for Tory’s ‘demere.’ 


+ Matthew 5,18. 


114 CHAMP FLEURY 


the Latins, both for I vowel and for the numeral I. Martial says, near 
the end of the second book of his Epigrams:—Vnum de titulo demere 
Tota potes.* In like manner, St. Matthew has in his fifth chapter: Amen, 
quippe dicovobis, donec transeat celum et terra, lota vnum, 
aux [aut] apex vnus, non prateribit a lege, donec omnia 
fiant. This Iota stands for an I, which is used by the 
Latins and French for the numeral one. 
S I have said, I is the starting point for making - 
all the other letters; whether it is kept as a 
straight line, or is bent and curved, or broken. And 
it alone of all the letters keeps its straight perpen- 
dicular line, in imitation of the human body,which, 
when standing upright on its feet, resembles it. 
Opening the arms & legs less or more shows the said 
briseure, as can readily be 
understood by the follow- 
ing figure, which I have 
drawn after the one which 
a noble lord and my good 
friend, Jehan de Perreal, 
otherwise called Jehan de 
Parts,>> valet-de-chambre 
and excellent painter to 
King Charles the Eighth, 
Louisthe Twelfth,&Fran- 
cois the First of thatname, 
gave to me, wondrous well 
executed by his own hand. 


=a =e 


=a 
Se 


Orasmuch as, with the 

help of God, havenow 
reached the point of tell- 
ing how our said [is often 
usedasa numeral, it seems 
to me not unprofitable to 
tell also what other letters 
are used as numerals, in 
Latin and French alike, 


ieee RD BOOK 


SAY, then, that there are eight letters which are used as numerals, 

namely, two vowels, I and V; two semivowels, L and M; three 
mutes, C, D, and Q;and one double consonant, X. I alone stands for 
one; when it is double, it means two; when it is triple, it means three, 
and when it is quadruple, four. And take note that it multiplies itself 
no further standing alone; it adds to itself other letters, but only to the 
number of four of any one. 


115 


\ J is used for five, because it is the fifth vowel. If there is one I after 
it, that means six; if there are two, seven; if three, eight; & if four 


nine, as can be seen in the numerals following: VI, VII, VIII, VITIL 


x is used for ten, because, if we ponder well what Priscian tells us, 
in the chapter “De —Accidentibus Litera, of the book De Numeris et 
Ponderibus, it is the tenth letter in alphabetical order, taking C,G& Q, 
as one letter, inasmuch as they pass for one another; and, too, Band F 
as one, because they were formerly used for each other, as Bruges and 
Fruges ; and, further, not counting S asa letter, for in ancient times it 
was neither written nor regarded except as denoting a sort of hissing 
sound, as, with our Lord’s help, I shall show hereafter in its alphabeti- 


cal order.* When there is an I before the X, the X is decreased by one, 


and means only nine. When the I comes after X, it means eleven, and 
so in like manner up to four I’s repeated after the said X, which make 

XI XIL XIII, XUIL Then, for fifteen, we write X and V; for sixteen 
X, V and I, and so with the other numbers, multiplying and adding 
Psand V’sand X’s up to fifty, for which numeral an L isused, and this 
in imitation of the Greeks, who use Gui, that is to say, N, for fifty. L 
and N, says Priscian in the first book of his De Nwmeris et Ponderibus, 
in the chapter ‘De Accidentibus Liters, inuicem sibi cedunt ; that is to 
say, Land N are often used & taken for each other, as in saying Lym- 
pha and Nympha.t 


(N stands for a hundred, because it is the first letter in the Latin word 
Centum. 


D stands for five hundred, because between D and M in alphabeti- 
cal order thereare five letters—E,F,G,LL,theK,which isa Greek 
letter and with which we have nothing to do, & the aspirate H, which 
is not properly a letter, are not counted.i 


* It is rather difficult to see 
how he makes good his claims 
that X is the tenth letter, even 
with these subtractions, as it 
is the twenty-first letter in the 
Latin alphabet. Perhaps he 


means the tenth consonant. 


Ÿ ‘As in the case of the other 
Roman numeral symbols, this 
was originally not the letter, 
but was identified with it 
owing to coincidence of form.’ 
—N.E.D. 


Ÿ The commonly accepted ex- 
planation of this use of D is 
less labored, namely, that it 
is not the letter D at all, but 
is one half of the original Tus- 
can numeral ©, or CID, for 
1000. 


* See the last page of his ‘De 
Litteris Antiquis Opuscu- 
lum. 


TL IV, 14. 


116 CHAMPAPEEULIRG: 


Furthermore, is used for a thousand because it is written first in 

the Latin word, Mille. In the number one thousand there are 
two five hundreds, for which reason D stands for five hundred, and 
twice five hundred is in Latin, Decies centum, and in one word, Mile. 
Let him who would look more fully into this subject, divert himself 
by reading in the book of ancient abbreviations which Probus* Gram- 
maticus wrote long ago, and in Priscian, where he treats, as I have said, 
De Numeris et Ponderibus; also in the book that Galeotus Narniensis 
wrote and entitled De Homine Interiori ; & in the beginning of the third 
book which Monseigneur Budé called De Asse et Partibus Eius, where it 
is said, Mille per M scribebant, &c. 


EN aa 


He 


AL 


HE letter K here designed, and made, both the whole leg and the 
broken ones, from the I, is as broad as it is high, that is to say, ten 
units perpendicularly & ten across, & requires eight turns of the com- 
pass, for the centres of which I have marked the places where the point 
of the compass should be set. 
Says Martianus Capella, is pronounced from the throat and the 
palate, without moving the tongue. K is not a Latin letter, but 
purely Greek, and therefore it seems useless and superfluous in the 
Latin language; for C and Q are used in its stead, of which letters the 
Greeks have no representation. In his first book, where he treats De 
Accidentibus Litera, Priscian says: K enim et Q, quamuis figura et nomine 
videantur aliquam habere differentiam cum C,tamen eandem tam in sono vo- 
cum, quam in metro potestatem continent ; et K quidem penitus superuacua e.t 
That is to say: ‘For K and Q, although in shape and name they seem 
to be something different from C, yet have the like quality and force 


ee eT ee, ee, ee ee he ee ee ee eh yl ee 


eT TES Te ee done ee ee Le ee Ne ee GE ES 


THE THIRD BOOK 117 


in sound and in metre; & therefore K is a superfluous letter.’ K, then, 
is a Greek letter, properly called by its Greek name—Czppa, Kanna. 


Have said & proved in the First Book that the Greek letters were in 

use here before the Roman; and I can allege further proof thereof, 
in that K is still used by us in the name Karolus, and in the piece of 
money worth ten deniers tournois, which also we call a Karolus. If when 
the first coin stamped with the Karolus was made, the Latin letters had 
been in general current use here, they would have written Carolus, 
which isa Latin word, witha C; butas I have said, following the fashion 
of the Greek letters, which were then current, they wrote it with K, as 
we still see on the said coin. It is not long since that the Latin tongue 
was purified, & came into established use in this country; and to prove 
that this is true, I refer to the venerable Grecismus,* to the worthy 
teacher Alexander de Villa Dei,t & a thousand other modern authors, 
who, though they would fain teach the Latin tongue, yet knew very 
little of it, so that those to-day who have a correct ear are sorely vexed 
when they hear their turgid lines and dry compositions recited. 


HE Latins retained the K for use in certain words which they took 

from the Greek, as Kalenda, Karthago, Katherina; but in the end 
they wrote these too with a C, as we can see in the book of Epitaphs of 
Ancient Rome, lately printed in said Rome. K, in Greek, because it is 
the first letter of the word Kaxov,—which is to say, in Latin, malum, & 
in French, mal and mauuais chose,as Erasmus says in his third Chiliad, 
in Chapter CCCCCLXXXIL,t—has become a proverb: Aindouy Kanna, 
Duplex Kappa, Double K,—or, if you prefer, Double C,—signifies two 
evil things essentially opposed to a good one; as if we imagine a lamb 
in the fields between a lion & a wolf. There is another Greek proverb: 
Toia Kanna Kaniota, Tria Cappa pessima; three K’s—or, if you prefer, 
three C’s—are very bad; which signifies covertly that there were of 
old in Greece three very evil-minded nations, the Cappadocians, the 
Cretans, and the Cilicians; that they were, one and all, & always, full 
of guile & given to every sort of deceit. Speaking of the three Kappas 
turned into a Greek proverb, I saw in Rome a young nobleman and 
blithe lover, who, as gentlemen in this country often do for love of their 
fair, wore as his device a B, an A, and three C’s, thus: B.A.C.C.C.; 


and thereby he meant the name of his lady-love, which was Beatrice; 


* Tory here repeats his error 
of making Grecismus a per- 


son. See Note 19. 


+ See Note 19. 


Ÿ m1, 6, 81 (2587). 


* En la quelle chose est enten- 
due sa figure, qui est d'une 
ligne perpendiculaire faisant 
a son talon une angle sus le 
quel ille es assize.—I can- 
not interpret this otherwise 
than as suggesting some re- 
semblance between the shape 
of the letter and its sound; but 
it seems very far from clear. 


118 CHAMPILCEURM 


which name is pronounced in Italian as if the C were aspirated, and 
as if it should be spelled thus: Beztriche. I say this in passing, to show 
that K should be pronounced sharp and hard, and Ca little soft, almost 
as if it were aspirated. 

HE Greeks never aspirate their Kappa, but they have another let- 

ter which carries its own aspirate, and is called Chi—equal to C & 
H; so that if they wished to write, Cha, che, chi, cho or chu they wrote Xa, 
Xe, X1, Xo, and Xou, which I leave for keen minds to meditate upon. 


i 
f 
| | 
A 
| \ 
7 


on 
Jeane ee 


4 


HE letter L here drawn is ten units in height and seven anda half 

in breadth, for the fashioning whereof five turns of the compass 

are required; and I have made five crosses where the point of the com- 
pass must be set, to describe them. 

Ome ancient writers—as I have said above in speaking of the letter 

E—drew it with only four centres, making a right angle at the foot 

of the upright leg, inside, as I have shown in the figure in which it is 
drawn without lines and in black. 

As I have heretofore said & shown in the chapter on the letter E, 

is derived from E by taking away the two upper horizontal arms. 

L, says Martianus Capella, lingua palatoque dulcescit. That is to say, L 

is pronounced with the tongue and the palate, which is the upper con- 

cavity of the mouth, with a soft outbreathing of the voice; by which 

is meant its shape, which is a perpendicular line forming at its foot an 

angle upon which it rests.* Priscian, in his first book, in the chapter, 

De Commutatione Literarum, says that Pliny was of opinion that L had 

three sounds in pronunciation. Priscian’s words are these: L #riplicem, 


THE THIRD BOOK 119 


vt Plinio videtur, sonum habet: Exilem, quando geminatur secundo loco posita, 
vt ible, Metellus; plenum, quando finit nomina vel syllabas, et quando habet 
ante se in eadem syllaba aliquam consonantem, vt Sol, sylua, flauus, clarus. 
Medium autem in alijs, ut lettus, lecta, lettum.* That is to say, ‘L has a 
threefold sound, as it seems to Pliny. The first is thin and simply soft; 
and this is when it is doubled, as in Ide, Metellus; the second is a full 
sound, and this is when it ends a word or syllable, or when it has a con- 
sonant before it, in the same syllable, as in Sol, sylua, flauus, clarus; the 
third and last is a medium sound, and this is when it is placed other- 
wise in syllables or words than when it has the first two sounds.’ He 
who would pronounce it properly must utter it as if he meant to say 
this syllable—EL. 

And hereupon I propose in this place to set forth the proper and 
true pronunciation of all the letters of the alphabet, wherein I see many 
persons go astray, when they say, A, boy, coy, doy; whereas they should 
say, A, be, che, de; as if the names of the letters, except the vowels, were 
written like syllables. Which thing the better to explain and enforce, I 
will set down here their names & pronunciations in syllables, as follows. 
A, be, che, de, E, ef, ge, ha, L, ka, el, em, en, O, pe, qui, er, es, te, ix, ypsilon; or 
if you choose to say them otherwise, say them in Greek. And the last, 
which is Zita, will be pronounced esd.t The error in the above-men- 
tioned absurd pronunciation is due to I know not what schoolmasters, 
both in cities and villages, who go about trying to teach others when 
they themselves are not taught as they should be. It is a great shame 
to meddle with a thing without a sound foundation and complete 
knowledge. 
bs show clearly that L should be 

pronounced like the syllable ¢/, I 
say again that it is made from the E, 
and that its pronunciation partakes of 
that of E, since it is derived from it; 
which, although I havealready shown 
it in the chapter on E, I will here show 
again, to the end that you may readily 
recognize my words as true. And this 
is proved by the figure herewith re- 
peated & put before you, in which I have drawn the two upper horizon- 
tal arms of the Ea little apart, thus leaving the Lcomplete and perfect. 


* 1, vil, 38. Again there is 
a slight variation from the 
original. 


+ Presumably a misprint for 
Ze, or Zed. 


120 CHAMP FLEURY 
HIS shows plainly how the L is derived from the E, and that it 


should be pronounced ¢/,as I have said,and not elle, wherein many 


ignorant persons go astray every day; and he who first invented the re- _ 


bus, Elle ef tornee a tort, which consists of an L reversed and a crooked 
Crortu'] A, falsified the true pronunciation. But he is to be forgiven, 
because of the license permitted and granted to such joyous devisers 
of amorous trifles. 
le Is pronounced awry in the provinces of Burgundy and Forest, 
when it is given the sound of R, as I have heard done by many 
young students of those provinces, when they came hither to the Uni- 
versity of Paris where I was then a teacher. Instead of saying mel, fel, 
animal, Aldus, and albus, and many other like words, they would pro- 
nounce them mer, fer, animar, Ardus, and arbus, which is a corruption 
of the true pronunciation, and which often not only causes confusion 
of meaning, but is the contrary of what is meant. Wherefore, I entreat 
fathers and teachers to look well to it, and to accustom their children 
and pupils to pronounce properly. It is one of the finest qualities of a 
worthy man and good orator, to pronounce well. 
Have said hereinbefore, in several places in the Second Book, that 
our fine Attic letters are related to the nine Muses & the seven Lib- 
eral Arts. I propose to show here by a figure of Astrology, which is one 
of the said seven Liberal Arts, the explanation of the horizontal arm of 
the letter L, & therewith that it is the centre & navel of the Alphabet. 
HE letter Lwas de- 
signed and drawn PSS S i LA 
Kn 


by the ancientwriters in 


itsrelationtothehuman (KR <5) LETTRE 
body and to its shadow AQAA ( LONGVE 
cast by the Sun when it . 


is in the sign of the Bal- 
ance,—or, as we say, of 
Libra,—in the month 
of September, A naked 
man, standing with his 
feettogetherintheSun’s 
rays whenitisinthesign 
of Libra, represents the 
shape of the said letter 


du De) 


“4 il ie 


i 
(iTS 


THE THIRD BOOK 121 


L, by drawing an oblique line from the outer end & acute angle of the 
foot to the upper end and angle, also acute, of the said letter. To make 
this manifest to the eye, I have designed & drawn the figure which you 
see here. And as I have meditated upon this instructive and explicative 
figure, it has seemed well to me to quote here a right witty passage writ- 
ten long ago by the most witty of all ancient poets, Plautus by name, 
who calls this letter L, Literam longam, or long letter, meaning thereby 
to signify that a man or a woman hanged by the neck represents with 
his body and his feet the letter L; as is most ingeniously and learnedly 
set forth by Philippe Beroaldus* & Jehan Baptiste le piteable——whom 
I saw and heard read in public twenty years since at Bonoigne la Grace, 
—commentators both upon the said Plautus. And it is in that part of 
the comedy called —4ulularia,t where the old woman Staphyla says: 
Nec quicquam melius et mibi,vt opinor, quam ex me vt vnam faciam literam 
longam, laqueo collum quin obftrinxero. hat is to say: “There is nothing 
better for me, as I believe, than that I should make of myself a long let- 
ter by hanging and strangling myself by the neck with a cord.’ 

Rhodiginus, in the sixth book of hisancient lessons, at Chapter VIII, 
is of a contrary opinion to that of the commentators above mentioned, 
Beroaldus and Jehan Baptiste le piteable, and says that the long letter is 
not L, but that it is T that should be understood in Plautus; wherein 
he seems to me to have little reason. The opinion of the said commen- 
tators seems to me better; & I would quote the words of Rhodiginus, 
were it not that I do not wish to seem to agree with them, and that I 
should be too long, & might overpass the limits of my subject. I would 
not, however, reprove the said R hodiginus, nor indeed can I, because of 
his learning and the great excellence of the works he wrote. Whether 

he is stupid in this matter I leave to the judgement of greater 
and wiser men than I, and I say in his behalf, Quan- 
doque bonus dormitat Homerus,t whichis to say, 
that there isno man so wise who does 
not sometimes err, as it is said 
that Homer erred in 
some passages of 
his poetic 
works. 


t Horace, Ars. Poet.,359.‘Some- 
times even the good Homer nods.’ 


* Filippo ‘Beroaldo (1453- 
1505), editor of, and commen- 
tator on, the works of many 
of the classical authors. 


TRI 


* Entre lesquelz les plus par- 
faitts et beaulx, sont les corps 
de bonne quadrature, la quelle 
quadrature se peult figurer en 
angle equilateral, en ligne 
perpendiculaire, ayant tous 
ses angles equilateraux, ©’ 
en ligne trauerceante, ayant 
aussi tous ses angles equila- 
teraux.—I transcribe this 
passage so that the curious 
may decide for themselves its 
meaning. Euclid's definition 
of a square is: “Quadratum 
quidem quod et aquilaterum 
est et rectangulum.’ 


+ ‘Is pronounced with the lips’ 
—a labial. 


~ 


122 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE letter M here drawn is made from the I alone, and is thirteen 

units in breadth, that is to say, three units broader than it is high, 
and, to be properly made, needs six turns of the compass; and I have 
marked the places where the point of the compass should be placed, 
to make them. 

HIS letter M is like some men, who are so stout that their girth 

is greater than the height of their body; and, upon this point, let 
me say that our Attic letters were formerly made by the ancients, some 
square, others broader than high, and others higher than broad, with 
covert reference to men’s bodies, among which the most perfect and 
comely are the bodies squarely built, which may be represented by an 
equilateral angle,a perpendicular line having all its angles equilateral, 
and a horizontal line, also having all its angles equilateral. Whereof 
you can read at length in the first book of Euclid.* 

Says Martianus Capella, /abris imprimitur.t That is to say, M 
must be so pronounced that, in uttering it, to produce its proper 

sound, we must press the lips together without moving the tongue, or 
letting it touch the front teeth, cost what it may. 

HE shape of the M is the same with the Greeks as with the Latins, 

& it iscalled in Greek, Mz,which isas much as to say that M should 
be pronounced with an imperfect sound, and, as it were, in the interior 
of the mouth, as in saying, em; for which reason some ancients called it 
Hemitonium, that is to say, half-tone letter, as Galeotus Martius Nar- 
niensis testifies in his second book, entitled De homine interiori. Pris- 
cian, where he treats De literarum commutatione, says that M has three 
kinds of sound, obscure, open, & median. His words are as follows: M 


ee NOV TS RATE | a 


ae ea 
… 


THE THIRD BOOK 


obscurus in extremitate dictionum sonat, vt Templum. Apertum in princi- 
pio, vt Magnus. Mediocre in medijs, ut Vmbra* ‘M, he says, ‘has an 
obscure sound at the end of words, as in Templum. At the beginning, it 
has an open sound, as in Magnus. And it has its median sound in the 
middle of words, as in Umbra. 
HE Normans err in the proper pronunciation of this letter M, 
when it is final in Latin words; for instead of Templum they say 
Templun, pronouncing N for M, and ‘Patren for Patrem, which is not 
according to the rule of Latin grammar. 
Ereupon, because I see many a one, both in speaking & in writing, 
go astray in this letter M, very often putting N for M, I purpose 
here very gladly to write down the letters before which M is changed to 
N, & this according to the teaching of the good Priscian, immediately 
after the place just cited; his words are as follows: M transit in N, et 
maxime D, vel T, vel C, vel Q, sequentibus. Vt tam, tandem; Tantum, 
tantundem; Idem, identidem; Num, nuncubi. Et, vt Plinio placet, Nunquis, 
nunquam; Ancepes pro amceps.t ‘My he says, ‘is changed to N, and most 
of all when D or T or C or Q follows it; as in tam, tandem; tantum, tan- 
tundem, idem, identidem; num, nuncubi; and, as Pliny says, nunquis, nun- 
quam, anceps for amceps.’ 
Have said heretofore, in the chapter on the I, that M as a Latin 
numeral signifies a thousand, & it is true; but also, when it is written 
alone, with a point following, it means and is equivalent to the name 
Marcus; as A means Aulus; BR, Brutus;t C, Caius, & when it is turned 
thus, D, it means Caia; D, Decius, and turned thus C, Decia; FA, 
Fabius; GN, Gneus; IV, Junius; K, in our usage, Carolus, in Latin, 
Calendzx; L, Lucius; NL, Non liquer; OPT, Optimus; P, Publius; Q, 
Quintus, and turned thus, À, Quinta; R, Roma, or Romanus; RP, 
Respublica; SEX, Sextus; 55’, Sestertium; VAL, Valerius; X, Deci- 
mus. Y and Z are not used in Latin in such abbreviations of Latin 
names, because they are purely Greek letters; but Z as a figure, in 
Latin & French, is used for two, and so written. The above-mentioned 
abbreviations of one letter, or two, or three, as I have given examples 
thereof, were ordained by the Greeks and the inventors of the Attic 
letters, which, by reason of their thickness, require to be written far 
apart, and with much room, because of which thing, one can hardly 
comprise much substance or meaning in written words, unless one 
makes use of abbreviation. 


123 


M1, Vt, 38. 


T 1, vu, 38. Tory does not follow 
Priscian’s text exactly, but the 
variation is very slight. 


tIf Tory had been blessed with 
prophetic vision, and could have 
looked ahead four centuries, be 
would doubtless have imagined 
another interpretation of these 
initials, not only more signifi- 
cant to the “‘devotz- Amateurs 
de bonnes lettres,’’ but of im- 
measurable import to his own 
fame. 


* See the last page of his “De 
Litteris Antiquis Opuscu- 
lum. 


124 CHAMP FLEURY 


N imitation of the Greeks and Latins, we also use abbreviations of 

single letters for proper names, and in our sign-manuals. As, if we 
wish to signify Andre, Antoine, Anselm, Alexander, Anne, Agnes, and 
a thousand other like names, we write an A; and so with all the other 
letters. But our surnames we write at full length. Which custom the 
Latins have not followed inall their names, as you can see in theancient 
histories of the Romans, Let him who may wish to learn how to read 
the ancient abbreviations which can be seen on medals and epitaphs, 
have recourse to the fine little book that Probus* Grammaticus wrote 
long ago; therein there is an abundance and a sufficiency, as to all the 
letters in their alphabetical order. 

Must not go on without saying that, to make an M well, we must 

first make a V, then the two legs, according to the number of lines 
and points before mentioned. 


NY 


pak 
Arar ei 


NEES apes 


ee, 


Pa 


CALE 


ee letter N here drawn is broader than it is high, and requires for 
its proper fashioning five turns of the compass,as I have indicated 
by marking the places on which to set the point of the said compass. 
Some ancient writers made the foot of the second leg end in a sharp 
point, but I have cut off the point, herein following Bramante, who 
made it thus in the Galleries of Pope Julius II, between the Palace of 
St. Peter at Rome and the Belvedere. 
N Should be pronounced with the tongue touching against the up- 
per teeth and against that part of the roof of the mouth nearest 
the said upper teeth, as that worthy ancient author Martianus Capella 
most clearly teaches when he says: N lingua dentibus appulsa colliditur; 


THE THIRD BOOK 125 


that is to say, ‘N is pronounced sharp & clear, with the tongue pressed 
against the teeth, by which teeth are meant the upper ones. 

F all the Attic letters there are only M and N which extend out- 

side the square, that is, which are broader than they are high. As 
I have said, M is broader by two units, and N by one, which makes 
three units for the two letters, which number three is an odd number, 
composed of an odd and an even, that is, one and two. Which thing 
covertly signifies good fortune, as I have said more fully in the Second 
Book, and likewise at the beginning of this Third and last Book. And 
this hidden good fortune was intended here by the ancients to signify 
that it is a great felicity for men to have acquaintance with well-made 
letters for more than half [of the alphabet ?]. Lis, as I have said, the 
middle letter; and therefore M & N come after L, to present covertly 
a symbol of good fortune and felicity to those who persevere in the 
knowledge of letters and learning. That some overpass the bounds of 
the square is a sign of abundance, which signifies that they whoabound 
in the knowledge of well-made letters abound in all good things and in 
surpassing perfection & virtue. Which thing also the worthy ancients 
indicated by placing after the M and N the O, which is made round 
_ within a square, and imports the complete perfection of well-lettered 
men, inasmuch as the Circle and the Square are the two most per- 

fect & comprehensive of all the figures designed by symmetry 
and commensuration, in the which commensuration and 
proper proportion consists the form and shape of all 
our well-made & divine Attic letters. Icould in 
this wise adapt and expound inallegoryall 
the other letters; but this would make 
a volume thicker than a Bible, 
which I may not do at this 
moment, because of the 
time, which requires 
that I be briefer 
and pass 
on. 


* Verse 323. 


126 CHAMPSELEURM 


due letter O here drawn within a square is as broad as it is high, 
and uniformly round on the outside. Within, it is curved in the 
shape of the bottom of a vat; that is, it isa little elliptical, making two 
of the sides a little longer, in which shape, within & without, the Coli- 
seum at Rome was built long ago, as can still be seen by the ruins that 
remain. To make these two different curves, five centres are needed, 
which I have marked at the places where the point of the compass must 
be set. Its roundness, resting on the square, signifies all perfection, as I 
have said hereinbefore; and we have in our French tongue the phrase 
‘to speak roundly,’ that is to say, to speak fully and concisely, compris- 
ing much meaning in few words. Which thing is peculiar to the Greeks 
& usual with them, & chiefly in the Laconian tongue, whereof Horace 


" says in his De Arte Poetica:— 


Graijs ingenium, Graijs dedit, ore rotundo, 


Musa loqui.* 


That is to say, that the Greeks have by naturea musical medium,which 
they speak and write roundly. 

Says Martianus Capella, rorundi oris spiritu comparatur. That is 

to say, ‘O should be pronounced with a breath coming forth 
roundly from the mouth,’ as its shape shows. O in Latin is sometimes 
short in quantity, and sometimes long, & both sounds are represented 
by the same written character. But in Greek there are Omicron & Omega, 
that is to say, O short, and O long, written in two different ways. Omi- 
cron is uniformly round on the outside, and the Latins stole it without 


fe ee 


1 


ee ee Le ee 


hélice a 0 2 ‘ou 


de ro Se eee nl ne cm mc ee eee ee ee ns 1e 5 Gr ee oe in LA 


LÉEDEEIRD BOOK 12:7 


changing its shape. Omega, as a capital, is rounded above & open below. 
This, the true form of Omega, is not well observed by some persons who 
write and pronounce that passage of the XXI and penultimate chapter 
of the Apocalypse [Revelation], where it is said: Ego sum Alpha et Q, 
in which passage, instead of Omega, which should be written Q, they 
write O, a complete circle, which is an Omicron; and the sense requires 
that it be Omega, which is the last letter of the alphabet in Greek; for 
in that place it stands for the completion and end: Ego sum Alpha et Q, 
it says; that is, Tam the beginning and end of all good things,’ said the 
Lord. Omicron does not signify the end,wherefore, then, it seems to me, 
humbly subject to correction, that we should better use Q than O. And 
again, since Alpha is written at full length, I would fain know if it 
would not be well to write and say Omega, thus: Ego sum Alpha et Omega, 
Since Alpha is written in full, it seems to me most probable that Omega 
should be, also; or else that we should say and write, Ego sum A et Q, so 
that A should neither be written nor pronounced in full,any more than 
Q. It is not my purpose, however, to correct Holy Scripture, nor could 
I; but asa grammarian, and because my present design is to teach how 
to write and pronounce the letters of the Alphabet, I raise the point, to 
warn those who take pleasure in well-saying and well-doing, and who 
love clearness in all letters. In the Greek text of the Bible, there is, Eyu 
elt To a mai To w—just the simple letters A and Q. 

O in Greek, Latin, and French is a vocative adverb, which is pro- 
nounced by the Greeks with a circumflex accent & witha non-aspirated 
sound, which is called thin and sharp; but Aldus in his Latin books 
prints it in some places with an acute accent. In our French language 
we have no mark of accent in writing, and this because our language 
is not yet made subject to fixed rules, like the Hebrew, Greek, & Latin. 
I would that it might be so made, as could well be done. Example in 
OP Auroi w Owes. And a little further on: Q” Mav Pav. Example in Latin: 
Greek of Q vocative: Theocritus in his first Eclogue called Thyrsis: 
Virgil in his first Eclogue:*— 


O’ Melibæe, Deus nobis hæc ocia fecit. 


In French, as I have said, we do not write the accent over the O voca- 
tive, but we pronounce it, as when we say: 
O pain du Ciel angelique 


Tu es nostre salut vnique. 


* Verse 6. 


* Satire X, 122. 


128 CHAMP (FLEURY 


In this lack of accent we have an imperfection which we ought to cure 


by purifying our language, which is the most graceful ever known, and 
reducing it to fixed rules. 

In Latin O is sometimes a mark of exclamation, and then it is pro- 
nounced and written with a grave accent, and sometimes, too, with an 
acute accent, as we can see in Juvenal, when he says: — 


O* fortunatam natam me Consule Romam.* 


And Budé in the first book of De Asse, the sixteenth folio in the Aldine 


print: O. acre iudicium hominum, quibus tamen ipsis inter classica recitan- 
teis Italos exaudire tantum vacauit. Example when O is acute: Budé in 
the same book: 0” tempora, O’ mores. 

In Greek and Latin, and in French too, O always stands alone, at 
least in the poets & orators, whatever meaning it may have; but I find 
it repeated even to the number of three in the second chapter of the 
Prophet Zechariah, where there is O‘O*O* fugite de terra Aquilonis, dicit 
dominus. But, again, I find that the Latin text does not agree with the 
Greek text, for in the Latin there are three O’s, and in the Greek two 
Q’s. Which I very gladly set down here to give warning to those who 
read the Bible, that they look well to the exactness of both. In the 

Greek text, there is, Q\u\éeuyere ano to Bogea eye Kuowoo.t If I 

chose to discourse upon this passage, I could perchance say 
something worth while; but I will leave it to the theo- 
logians to do, to whom it belongs to reconcile the 
Holy Scripture and interpret it in its en- 
tirety. I, who in this book treat of 
letters, pass on, and come 
to my next letter of 
the alphabet, 
which ts 


114 


+ The King James version bas: ‘Ho, ho, 
come forth and flee from the land of the 
North, saith the Lord. —Zech., 11, 6. 


Se ee 


hee ee TR 


% 


THE THIRD BOOK 129 


| 


eee ae 
ner ||) 
LUS ||") 


HE letter P here drawn, & formed from the I and the O, is seven 

units in breadth, and is derived from B by taking away the lower 
curve, and by cutting off the base of the remaining curve at a distance 
of two units from the upright leg, as you can see in the present figure. 
To make the P properly, five turns of the compass are necessary; I 
have marked the places where the point of the compass should be set 
to make them. 


Is three whole units higher than it is broad, and, as I have said, the 

end of its curve, which I have called the middle line, is cut off at 
a distance of two units from the leg. I repeat this by design because I 
find that those who attempt to describe the Attic letters almost always 
go astray herein: they make the said curve extend to the leg below as 
well as above, which should not be done. 


Says Martianus Capella, labris spiritus erumpit. P is pronounced 

with the voice issuing through closed lips, which can be under- 
stood from the figure of the said P. This P is of a surety derived from 
B, for there was formerly so great an affinity between them that B was 
very often written and said for P, as can be seen in the words TetapBoo 
and Triumphus; Buegoo and Pyrrhus; BuËoc and Pyxos, whence Pixides. 
Whereof one can see ample proof in Priscian & other good Gramma- 
rians, & especially in a pleasant little treatise that Aldus has printed,* 
on the values of Greek and Latin letters and of the interchanges be- 
tween them. 


* The ‘pleasant little treatise’ 
is printed at the end of the 1507 
edition of -Aldus’s ‘Gramma- 
tica, under the title, Gramma- 
ticis Grace Isagoga.’ 


*1,1v,12. The variation from 
the original here consists solely 
inthe punttuation, which Tory 
seems to have changed to accom- 
modate bis translation. 


130 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE Latins, in imitation of the Greeks, sometimes aspirate the P, 

in order to make use of Greek words in which there is a Phi, ®, 
which is equivalent to P & H; and the most ancient Latins, as Priscian 
testifies in his first book, in the chapter De accidentibus litera, used PH 
for F, before the. said F came into use; but, finally, F was recognized 
in Latin words. Priscian’s words are as follows: F Æolicum digamma 
quod apud antiquissimos Latinorum eandem vim quam apud Æolis ha- 
buit, cum autem prope sonum quem nunc habet F, significabat P, cum aspira- 
tione; sicut etiam apud veteres Gracos pro ®, P et H. Vnde nunc quoque in 
grecis nominibus antiquam scripturam seruamus pro ®,“P et H ponentes. Vt 
Orpheus, Phaeton. “Postea vero in Latinis verbis placuit pro‘P et H, F scribi. 
Vt Fama, Filius, Facio* That is to say: ‘F,a letter invented by the Æo- 
lians,and which is formed of two Gammas,which F, in the usage of the 
ancient Latins, had the same force that it had in the language of the 
Æolians, had almost the same sound that F now has, and stood for P 
with an H; as likewise,among the ancient Greeks, P and H were used 
for ©. For which reason, let us now, in Greek nouns, follow the ancient 
manner of writing, using P and H for ®; as in Orpheus and Phaeton. 
But later, in Latin words F was written in place of Pand Has in Fama, 
Filius, Facio, 

In our French tongue we do not aspirate the P, except in words de- 
rived from the Greek, or from the Latin as derived from the Greek; 
as Philibert, Philosophe, Philippe, Phantastique, and a hundred others. 

As a Latin abbreviation P stands for Publius; when doubled it 

stands for ‘Petrus Paulus, or Pater patria ; & when it is writ- 
ten three times in succession, it stands for Primus 
pater patria. In French it is used as an abbre- 
viation only in proper names, & this 
in signatures to documents, 
quittances, and com- 
mercial or legal 
letters. 


| 
¥ 
| 
| 


THE THIRD BOOK 131 


HE letter Q here drawn, made at the top from the O, and from 

the I laid flat like a tail, is in respect to the head as broad as it is 
high; and its tail is four units high & thirteen long. To make the head, 
five centres are needed, and for the tail two, all of which Ihave marked 
in the proper places. Q is pronounced by striking the tongue against 
the roof of the mouth & half-closing the mouth, as Martianus Capella 
teaches when he says: Q appulsu palati ore restritto. ‘Q, he says, ‘is pro- 
nounced by putting the tongue against the palate, with the mouth con- 
tracted,’ 


* 1, vi, 48. 


132 CHAMP FLEURY 


Have said heretofore, in the Second Book, that Q is the only letter 
that goes outside the line, & the reason is that it is never written ina 
word with other letters,without having a V [U_] following immediately 
after it, which it reaches out for and embraces as its usual companion 
& loyal friend. Q is, indeed, sometimes used alone as an abbreviation, 
with a point, & stands for Quintus. But in words written in full it must 
always have V for its mate, asin the words Quis, Quia, Quando, Quidam, 
Quanquam, anda hundred others. Likewise in French: ‘Qui esse’, ‘Qui 
cest?’ ‘Cest Quentin.’ ‘Que veult il?’ ‘Il quiert la rue de Quiquempoit.’ 
‘A quoy faire?’ ‘Pour y trouuer quelcun pour aller iouer aux Quilles.’ 
Q and C are almost alike in shape and in value, except that Q is 
wholly round as to the head, and C is open. There is so great affinity 
between them, says Priscian in his first book, that very often, in Latin 
words,Q is changed to C. Priscian’swordsare these. DeQ , quoque suffici- 
enter trattatum es, qua nisi eandem vim haberet quam ©, nunquam in princi- 
pijs Infinitorum vel Interrogatiuorum quorundam nominum posita per obliquos 
casus, in illam transiret : ut Quis, cuius, cui. Similiter averbis Q habenti- 
bus in quibusdam Participijs in C transfertur; vt Sequor, secutus, Loquor 
locutus.* That is to say: ‘We have treated sufficiently of this letter Q, 
which, if it had not the same force as C, would never be changed to C 
at the beginning of the oblique cases of some indefinite or interroga- 
tive nouns: as Quis, cujus, cui. In like manner, Q is changed to C in 
some participles of verbs in Q:as in Sequor, secutus; Loquor, locutus The 
ancients, to mark this great affinity between Q and C, very often wrote 
QVV for CV, and, conversely, CV for QVV, as Priscian witnesses 
in the place cited, when he says: QV V ponebatur, et e contrario: vt 
Arquus, Coquus, Oquulus, pro Arcus, Cocus, et Oculus; Quum pro Cum; 
Quur pro Cur. , 
E retain this affinity and change from Q to C, in our French 
language, saying: ‘Quelque persone, and ‘quelconque persone’; 
‘Quelque vng,’ and ‘quelcung, and formerly, ‘Quelquum’; ‘Au prim 


temps chante le Coquu,’ and ‘Au prim temps chante le Cocu.’ 


TE letter Q puts forth so much power in drawing the V in its 
train that, having so drawn it, it causes it to lose a great part of its 
sound, which thing is well marked in the pronunciation of the Italians, 
who pronounce V much better after G & Q than the French do, except 
those who have sojourned in Italy and who strive to imitate the Italians. 


THE THIRD BOOK 133 
ae prove what I have said, that Q embraces V with its tail, I have 


made below a drawing wherein you can see that the upper end of 
the said tail is on a line with the lower end of the V, & marks covertly 
the space required between the letters when written in some sentence, 
verse, phrase, or word. The space that you see between the Q and the 
V is that which is commonly required between these letters, except in 
the printing of books. But this rule is not always observed; for some- 
times this space is of the breadth of an I, sometimes of an F, sometimes 
of an E, and at other times greater or less, as the manner of writing & 
the subject and the place demand, and according to the writer’s good 
judgement. But at all times and everywhere, mark well that every At- 
tic letter must be written freely and with plenty of room, wherefore 
the matter that you would write must be writtenas briefly as possible ; 
as they say in Greek, Aanuviouoo, and in Latin, Breuiloquentia, and in 
French, ‘Breve sentence’; in which matter the Laconians of old in Greece 
had very great facility, because they were wont to comprise much mean- 
ing in few words, as can be seen in their Apophthegms,—that is, pithy 
sayings,—which Plutarch wrote down from memory. Of this breuilo- 
quentia Erasmus speaks in his second Chiliad, Proverb XMLVIIL* 
Ere is the drawing hs 
of the two noble 
companions, Q and V, 
with the space required 
in the syllables of words 
wherein they are well 
written or to be written; 
& hereupon mark this 
also: Q isnever the final 
letter in syllable or word. 
Urthermore, observe the centres from which to draw the tail of 
this present letter Q, which I have marked A and B, and note that 
the point of the compass must be placed on the A or the B within the 
V, and with each of those two letters the other leg of the compass 
must be placed on its fellow, to draw the circle. The other centres, not 
marked by letters, are used to make the head of the Q and the V, as 
you can see by experiment and practice. 
And observe yet again that the letter Q isa Latin letter, made from 
the Greek letter Omicron ; or, if you prefer, say that it is made from O, 


* Adages, 11, I, 92. 


* Verse 109. 


34 CHAMP ELEURY 


with a line beneath, which signifies that, after the perfectness which 
the O denotes by virtue of its circular form, and the idea of prosperity 
denoted by the P following the O, those who persevere in well-made 
letters add a tail to their knowledge over and above its perfection; that 
is to say, they acquire worldly goods by their virtue, which the V, the 
first letter of the word Virtue, signifies covertly, as they can judge who 


know these things by dint of careful study. 


HE letter R here drawn, and made from 1& O, is of equal breadth 
and height, and to be duly made, requires seven centres, which I 
have marked where the point of the compass must be placed. 

R, according to Martianus Capella, in spiritum lingua crispante corra- 
ditur. R is pronounced with the tongue making a strident and vibrat- 
ing sound through the open lips. When dogs are angry, before they 
begin to bite each other, contracting their throats and grinding their 
teeth, they seem to be saying R, for which reason the poet Persius, the 
most pleasant of caustic satirists, calls it Litera canina, the canine letter, 
which the dogs utter, when he says in his first Satire: 


Sonat hic de nare canina littera.* 


That is to say, ‘The canine letter here sounds from the nostril.’ When 
a man is angry, or vexed, or wroth, we say that he is irritated by some 
affront, that is to say, exasperated (exaspere), & this because he cannot 
utter a soft word, but only harsh (aspre) and angry sounds made up of 
strident letters, which letters are RR repeated and pronounced in a 


THE THIRD BOOK 135 


harsh tone (zsprement). And to avoid this unpleasant asperity, the an- 
cient Latins very often wrote and pronounced S instead of R, in such 
names as Valerius and Furius, saying Valesius and Fusius. Quintilian 
bears witness to this in the first book of his Inffitutiones Oratoria, when 
he says: Sed et qua reblis quoque casibus ætate transierunt. Nam vt Valesij 
et Fusij in Valerios Furiosque venerunt. Ita —Arbos, Labos, Vapos, etiam 
 Clamos atatis fuerunt.* Festus likewise bears witness to it, saying: S, 
quoque pro R sape antiqui posuerunt, vt Maiosibus, Meliosibus, Lasibus, 
Fesijs, pro. Maioribus, Melioribus, Laribus, Ferijs.t Which manner of 
pronunciation is to-day wrongly used, not only in Bourges, where I was 
born, but in this noble city of Paris,where very often S is said for R, & 
R for S. For, instead of saying Jesus Maria, they say Ierus Masia; and 
instead of saying at the beginning of the first book of Virgil’s Aineid, 


Musa mihi causas memora quo numine laso,t 
they say, wrongly, 
Mura mihi cauras memosa quo numine lero, 


I do not say this to reproach them, for there are some who pronounce 
very well; but I say it to admonish those who take neither pains nor 
pleasure in pronouncing well. 
(oe furthermore three other peoples that pronounce R very ill: 
those of Le Mans, the Bretons, and the Lorrainers. The people of 
Le Mans add S to R; for if they would say, ‘Pater Noster, or Tu es mag- 
aster noster, they say Paters Nosters, or Tu es magisters nosters. The Bretons 
pronounce only one R where two are written; as in saying Homo curit 
for Homo currit. On the contrary, the Lorrainers pronounce two where 
there is but one; for when they wish to say, ‘Saincte Marie, vecy grande 
mocquerie et dure dyablerie, they pronounce it, ‘Saincte Marrie, vecy 
grande mocquerrie et durre dyablerrie.’ It is the Lorrainers against 
whom Proverb seven hundred and fifty-three of the second Chiliad of 
Erasmus can be quoted, where we read, Eretriensium Rho, & not against 
the Picards, as Erasmus wrote in that passage; and Iam amazed that 
he fell into that error, since he is so learned, and that he did not know 
that the Picards pronounce R much better than the Lorrainers do; and 
also that he did not know that there is no nation in France which pro- 
nounces better than the said Picards. It may be that he thought that 
Picards and Lorrainers, because they both speak French, are all of the 
same nation. 


i Ale § 


+ Book 16, line x. 


136 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE letter S here drawn is higher than it is broad. Its breadth is 

but six units less two thirds of a unit, of which two thirds one is 
taken from the first of the six squares and the other from the sixth. 
This refers to the breadth of the lower curve; for the upper one is only 
three whole units and two halves in breadth, as can be plainly seen in 
the drawing, in which I have marked eight centres where the point of 
the compass must be placed, to draw it properly. Frere Lucas Paciolus 
draws it in different wise, and less clearly, in his Divina Proportione, 
making several circles and straight perpendicular lines; but I do not 
put so much labour into it, for, as can be seen at a glance, my method 
is shorter and simpler, and withal more sure. I say this not boastingly, 
but the eye discovers the fact. According to said Paciolus, the S is the 
most difficult to make of all the letters; but in my manner I find it as 
easy as another. It must be broader below than above, by its nature, 
because it consists of a circle upon a circle, of which circles if one is to — 
hold firm & in its place upon the other, it isnecessary that it be smaller. 
And for this same good reason, the figure 8 is made of two O’s, one up- 
on the other, and the one above is smaller than the one below. Again, 
we see that a naked man, standing erect on his feet, is broader & more 
stable at the feet than at his head. 


Gladly make this demonstration here, because I see thousands who 
ignorantly make the S broader above than below. 
S, says Martianus Capella, sibillum facit dentibus verberatis : that is to 
say, S is pronounced by making a hissing sound between the closed 
teeth. In Greek it is called Ziyua, & is different in shape, for the Greeks 


THE THIRD BOOK 137 


write it as it were an M lying on its side, thus, ©; and pronounce it 
strong and full, almost as we pronounce twoS’s. When they say Mouca, 
they pronounce it Mussa; & they never make it thin or soft between 
two vowels, as we do. If they wish to say Musa, or Philosophia, they 
pronounce Mussa, or “Philossophia, and the same wherever it stands 
between two vowels. 

Is called by the Greeks agtmov cotxetov, that is to say, the inceptive 

letter, because it can be placed, alike in Greek and in Latin, before 
all the mutes and before Mina syllable or a word of one syllable, asin 
these words: XBevvuw, Xnagdn, Zuunreov, Zreuua, ZBevoo, Nove, Zxuua, 
Zuagaydoo; and in Latin, Scutum, Spatium, Stamen, Scribo, Strues, Stlem- 
bus, Splendidus. It can also be added to many other letters at the end of 
syllables and words, as in these Latin forms: Scrobs, Frons, Hyems, Ars, 
Puls, Stirps, Lans, Theseus. In our French tongue it can be prefixed and 
sufhixed in many ways to many different letters, which I shall forbear 
to set down here, for brevity’s sake, and so that it may afford diversion 
and employment to some man of eminent intellect who shall desire to 
assist in bringing order into our French tongue, & reducing it to fixed 
rules for speaking and writing properly according to the qualities of 
the letters, syllables, and complete words contained therein. 


Is also called by the Greeks Movadmov, that is, solitary,* because in 

the division of semi-vowels, of which it is one, it stands alone in its 
force. For the others are divided into four liquids—L, M, N, R,—and 
two semi-vowels called double in their attributes—X and Z. Its value 
in the matter of pronunciation and in metrical quantity is such that 
sometimes it is stable and sometimes it disappears and 1s lost, so little 
force has it. Wherefore it is called by the Greeks Acupov, that is to say, 
not noble, and without force.t Not only does it disappear itself but it 
takes with it the near-by vowel, and very often causes a change in the 
quantity of the vowel that precedes it, as can be plainly seen in many 
passages of the Latin poets, from amongst which I will cite a few verses 
of the father of Latin poets, Ennius, whom Aulus Gellius quotes in the 
fourth Chapter of Book XII of his Nottes Artica, whe 


Doctus, fidelis, suauis homo, facundus, suoque 
Contentus, atque beatus, scitus, secunda loquens in 
Tempore commodus, et verborum vir paucorum.} 


* Movadikov has no such 
meaning so far as one can 
discover. 


+t Aonuov, inarticulate. 
Tory's words are ‘non noble, 


© sans efficace. 


t Ennius,Annales,vu, 107. 


* Æneid, X1, 309, and X11,709. 


Priscian,1,V11, 40, quotes only 
the first four words of the first 
verse, but gives the second in 
full —“virosque, not ‘vir.’ In 
modern editions of Virgil, the 
contracted forms are not used. 


138 CHAMP FLEURY 
Which verses are to be scanned in such wise that the S is lost, as follows: 


Doctu’, fi-delis-suavis ho-mo fa-cundu’ su-oque 
Conten-t’ atque be-atus-scitu’ se-cunda lo-quens in. 


if Set down and quote these words, to the end that, if it should happen 
that one has occasion to write in Attic letters such verses, wherein 
the S should disappear, one may write them clearly & wittingly with- 
out putting the said letter S where it might be lost,and put an apostto- 
phe over the place where theS should be. This apostrophe, being above 
the line at the end of a word, signifies that some vowel or anS has been 
dropped because of the metrical quantity of the vowel that follows it 
in the next syllable or word. Priscian testifies, in the chapter, De irera- 
rum commutation, that S very often loses its force, when he says: S 7 
metro apud vetustissimos vim suam frequenter amittit. Virgilius in Vndeci- 
mo Æneidos— 


Ponite’ pes sibi quisque, sed hac quam angusta videtis. 
Idem in Duodecimo,— 
Inter se coiisse vir’ et decernere ferro.* 


‘Ne’ autem coniunttione sequente, cum apostropho penitus tollitur, vt Vider’, 
Satin’, Vin’, pro Videsne, Satisne, Visne. 
That is to say: S,in the verse of the ancient poets very often loses its 


force, as in the eleventh book of Virgil’s Aineid :— 

Ponite’ pes sibi quisque sed hæc quam angusta videtis. 
And in the twelfth book,— 

Inter se coijsse vir’ et decernere ferro, 


In like manner, when the Latin conjunction # follows S, the S is 
dropped altogether, and, as I said, we put an apostrophe above the line; 
as when we say Viden’, Satin’, Vin’, for Videsne, Satisne, and Visne. 


HE ladies of Paris for the most part duly observe this poetic fig- 
ure, dropping the final S from many words; as when, instead of 
saying, ‘Nous auons disne en vng Jardin, et y auons menge des Prunes 
blanches et noires, des Amendes doulces et ameres, des Figues molles, 
des Pomes, des Poires, et des gruselles, they say, ‘Nous auon disne en 
vng Jardin et y auon menge des prune blanche et noire, des amende 


THE THIRD BOOK 139 


doulce et amere, des figue molle, des pome, des poyre, et des gruselle.’ 
This fault would be pardonable in them, were it not that it passes from 
women to men, and that there comes to be a complete failure of per- 
fect pronunciation in speaking. 

"Tis no wonder that S sometimes loses its force, since, furthermore, 
the Bocotians,who are a Greek people, very often put in its place an as- 
pirate, saying Muha for Musa. Even as, contrariwise, it is often found 
in place of the aspirate, as in Semis, Sex, Septem, Se, Si, Sal,which are writ- 
ten in Greek with a Aaceia, that is to say, an apostrophe which stands 
for the aspirate and must be written above the Greek vowels and Rho, 
as Priscian informs us, in his first book, wherein he treats De Jitera- 
rum commutatione, when he Says: Spe vero pro aspiratione S ponitur in his 
dittionibus quas a Gracis sumpsimus, vt Semis, Sex, Septem, Se, Si, Sal; 
nam Hemis, Hex, Heptem, He, Hi, Has apud illos aspirationem habent in 
principio. Adeo autem cognatio est huius litera, id est S cum aspiratione quod 
proeain quibusdam dittionibus solebant Beotes idem proS, H scribere, Muha 
pro Musa dicentes.* 
ee should desire full knowledge of the varying nature and 

attributes of this letter S, can find a sufficiency thereof most 
elegantly set forth in the fourth book of the Grammar of Aldus, in the 
third section [tertims modus] of the Chapter ‘De septem modis commu- 
nium syllabarum., 


HIS letter S, as I said but now, is called in Greek Xiyua, naga to 


oiletv, that is to say, to make a hissing sound, of the same quality. 


that red-hot iron makes when it is dipped in water. Sigma, therefore, 
signifies silence, for which reason the ancients often wrote it alone 
above the door of the place where they ate and drank with their good 
friends; in order to put it before their eyes that such words as they 
should speak at table must be spoken soberly & listened to in silence; 
which cannot be if there be excess in eating and drinking, which are 
things not meet for decency at table & for pleasant company. Where- 
upon Martial says in one of his ingenious epigrams: — 


Accedent sine felle ioci, nec mane timenda 
Libertas, et nil quod tacuisse velis. 

De Prasino conuiua meus Venetoque loquatur, 
Nec faciant quenquam pocula nostra reum.t 


* 1, VII, 42. Priscian writes 
Hemis, etc.,in Greek characters. 
His text varies slightly from 
Tory’s version. 


+ Epigrams, x, XLVI, 21. 


*1, 94. 


f X, XLVI, 6. 


t Gellius says that three is 
the minimum number for a 
feast, and nine the maximum. 


§ Heretofore referred to as (eli- 
us Rhodiginus, or Rhodiginus 


alone. : 


140 CHAMP FLEURY 


‘At my banquet’, he says, ‘there is merry talk, without bitterness, with 
liberty to speak as if fasting, and no words that you would wish not to 
be said. In short, let my table companions speak of this thing and that, 
in such wise that my wine does not confuse their words,’ 

Sigma then was a symbol for the place where man feasted decently, 
without a great effusion of words; and this place would hold no more 
than seven persons, which is a number composed of odd and even; and 
in reference to this odd number, Virgil said, in the first book of his 
Aineid,— 


O terque quaterque beati,—* 


to show that that number of seven persons could converse without con- 


fusion. And Martial says, 
Septem Sigma capit, sex sumus adde Lupum.t 


He says in another passage, that this place aforementioned might be 
large enough for eight persons; this, too, is less than the number of the 
nine Muses, which number Aulus Gellius, in the eleventh chapter of 
book XIII of his Noffes Artica, declares to be the greatest number of 
persons proper for a banquet,when he remarks that every well-ordered 
feast, in respect to the number of guests, should begin with the three 
Graces and end with the nine Muses.t Martial says furthermore of this 
same Sigma,— 


Accipe lunata scriptum testudine Sigma, 
Octo capit, veniat quisquis amicus erit.56 


‘Take, he says, ‘the Sigma written in the curved arch; there may be 
therein eight persons, and therefore let any good friend of mine come 
thither,’ | 

Whoso should wish to read his fill on this matter, let him seek in 
the XVIII chapter of the seventh book of the Ancient Lessons of Celi- 


us,§ wherein he treats of the said Sigma and of other notable matters. 


HE letter S, then, was, in former times, so symbolic of silence, that 
the comic poets made use of itasan improper syllable,that is tosay, 
a syllable without a vowel, by adding to it a T only, to impose silence 
upon someone who was speaking, and wrote it thus: ST. Plautus, in 
his comedy called Truculentus, in the act beginning, Rus mane me hinc 


THE - THIRD: BOOK 141 


ive jussit Pater, introduces a character named Strabax, who says to him- 
self: Hodie efferam ad banc argentum quam mage amo quam Matrem meam. 
St ecquis? Nulla eS, ecquis aperit hoc ostium?* In like manner, Terence 


used it in his comedy called Phormio, where we find, Non is obsecro es, 


quem te semper dicunt, St. quid has metuis fores? + 

We, too, use this improper syllable ST, when we would make some 
one hold his peace and impose silence on him; but some write it Chut, 
which is a complete syllable, that is, a syllable containing a vowel. We 
might use the ST, as if we should say: 


Escoutez, St, escoutez, voyez ou vous vous boutes, 
Des lieux en ce monde, ou souvant mal on se fonde. 


I have said hereinbefore, when I discoursed upon the letter G, and 
the rebuses which some jesters make from letters, that he who con- 
ceived the rebus of the broad [large] S, which is called lettre de forme, & 
used it as his device, to signify covertly largesse, displayed a pleasant wit 
in the invention of that rebus; but if he had signified thereby Sélence, 
as the ancient Fathers did, he would have done even better. Silence and 
Largesse are two excellent qualities; but Silence is the more efficacious, 
as you can see in Chapter XV of the first Book of the Nottes Attica of 
Aulus Gellius, where we find in a passage from the poet Hesiod, — 


Optimus est homini linguæ thesaurus et ingens 
Gratia, quæ parcis mensurat singula verbis. 


That is to say, the tongue that restrains itself, and measures its words, 
is a very great treasure and sovereign charm. 

Ereon, I would that the great lords who take pleasure in building 

palaces and mansions, and who love paintings & emblems,would 
cause an S or ST to be written, painted, engraved, or carved over the 
doors of their halls & kitchens, in order covertly yet plainly to impose 
silence on a parcel of roisterers who make more uproar after drinking 
than a hundred starlings in harvest-time. That would be an admoni- 
tion, to small and great alike, to be restrained in speech, and to refrain 
from saying aught that is not pleasant and decent and necessary. 

I return to the discussion of our S, and observe that the Toulousans 
and Gascons commit an error in pronouncing it; for they place an E 
before it, in such wise that, if they wished to say, Schola or Scribere, or 
any like word beginning with S, they would say, Eschola and Escribere, 


* Truculentus, 111, 1, 17. 


+ Phormio,v, 1,16. The ‘St’ 
is an interjection of Chremes 
between two speeches of So- 
phrona. 


* Tory wrote parhhw,eoar- 
Aov,ebalua, but there is no 
such Greek verb; and Sigma is 
not a component part of Phi. 


+ Les Bretons bretonnants ; 
according to Cotgrave, a Bre- 
ton bretonnant is ‘A low Brit- 
an (sic), who speakes halfe 
welch, halfe Saxon, all bar- 
barously.’ 


142 CHAMP FLEURY 


which isa great vice in Latin. I know not if this vice has befallen them 


because we say, in French, ‘escripre’ and ‘escole,’ and because in some 
words we place E before S, in imitation of the Greeks, who write and 
pronounce Epsilon before Sigma, that is to say, E before E, in the imper- 
fect and perfect tenses of verbs beginning with Sigma; also in words 
beginning with Zita, =1, & Psi, whereof Sigma is a part, saying, Uneiow 
EOTIEIOOV, eomagka. MTEEPW EoTEEdov, eoTeapa. Zaw, eCaov, eCuka. =ew, e€eov, 
efexa. Vadlu, eyadrov, eyalka.* The low Bretonst pronounce S very well, 
and like the Greeks; for between two vowels, they give it a full, solid 
sound, whereas we, like the Latins, weaken it & make it flat, so to speak. 
If these Bretons wished to say, Nisi musa desiderium amiserit, they would 
pronounce the S so full that there would seem to be two instead of one, 
saying, Nissi mussa dessiderium amissertt. | 


HE letter T here drawn, made from the I, is ten units in height like 
all the others, and eight and a half units in breadth at the top; and 


~ the ends of its arms & its foot are curved by four turns of the compass; 


I have marked the centres whereon to set the point of the compass. 
Says Martianus Capella, appulsu lingua, dentibus impulsis excuditur 
That is to say, Tis pronounced by putting the tongue against the 
closed teeth. The Italians pronounce it so full & resonantly that it seems 
as if they add an E to it, when, instead of saying, Caput vertigine laborat, 
they pronounce, Capute vertigine laborate. I have heard it so pronounced 
in Rome, in the school called La Sapienza, and in many other distin- 
guished places in Italy. This pronunciation is in no wise followed bythe 


THE THIRD BOOK 143 


people of Lyons, who drop the T, and do not pronounce it at all at the 
end of the third person plural of active and neuter verbs, saying Ama- 
verun and Araverun fore Amaverunt and Araverunt. In like manner some 
Picards drop the T at the end of certain French words, as when, mean- 
ing to say, Comant cela comant? Monsieur, cet une jument, they say, Coman 
chela coman? Monsieur, ches une jumen. 

Is of the same figure and shape in Greek and Latin, and is called 

in Greek, Taf, which denotes that it is without aspirate. The Latins 
and we have it sometimes alone and without an aspirate following, and 
sometimes we add the aspirate to it; but the Greeks have for T and H 
.asingle letter,which they call Outa. The Hebrews also have for T alone 
a single letter, which they call Terh, and another letter for T aspirated, 
which they call Thau.* 

AF,—that is to say, T,—as Asconius Pedianust says, was one of the 

three letters used by the ancients in their criminal trials and judge- 
ments. When they wished to condemn some person as guilty, they threw 
into a vessel made for that purpose the letter © written on a small bit of 
paper, or parchment, or some other like substance suitable to be written 
upon. When they wished to acquit, they threw into the said vessel the 
letter Taf, so written. And when they were in doubt about the pending 
cause, they threw in a Lambda, which signified that they had not as 
yet sufficient knowledge of the said cause. You will find this set forth 
in Proverb LVI of the first Chiliad of Erasmus, of which the title is 
© prafigere. 

Has C for a companion, which precedes tt, and is always joined to 

it in the same syllable, as in the words Peétus, Actus, & a thousand 
others; for which reason modern writers, following the ancient, still 
write c and ¢as one letter, called an abbreviation, written thus—@; and 
these two, as I have said, are always grouped with the following vowel 
in the same syllable, as—‘Pe-Gus,A-Gus, Ne-Go, Le-Gus, Pi-Gus; just as in 
the case of M before N, which must always be written with the N in the 
same syllable with the vowel that follows them, as in the words, Mne- 
stheus,-A-mnis, O-mnis, Sa-mnis,and other like words. I say this chiefly 
for the behoof of some who separate them, being ignorant of their af- 
finity and perpetual alliance, 

Before N also must be in the same syllable, as we see in the words 

Tle-ptolemus,t & Æ-tna. And in like manner before R,ascan be seen 
in a thousand words. 


* In the description of the He- 
brew alphabet, infra, p.162, 
Thau does not appear. The 
nearest approach to it is Tau. 


+ O.-Asconius Pedianus, a 
learned grammarian of “Pa- 
dua, who wrote (A.D. 41) 4 
valuable commentary on (ic- 
ero. 


tA curious inStance of 
Tory’s carelessness. 


* A mistake, of course, for 
Julius IL. There have been but 
three Popes called Julius. 


+ He lived from about 1444 
to 1514. His real name was 
“Donato d’Agnolo. 


144 CHAMPSFEEURY 


Must not forget to say that Bramante, the great master architect of 

Pope Julius the Sixth,* whose tomb & epitaph I saw in the church of 
Minerva at Rome, made the T in the galleries of the said Pope Julius, 
between the Church of St. Peter and the Belvedere, with the end of the 
first arm in a perpendicular line & with the end of the other arm slant- 
ing a little, in a line drawn from the upper corner to the inner side of the 
base, which I have followed in my drawing, knowing full well that in 
triumphal arches the T has both arms cut perpendicularly. 


HE said Bramante was the most eminent architect—that is to say, 
master mason—of his time.t He it was who made the plan & model 
for rebuilding the Church of St. Peter at Rome for Pope Julius; and I 
believe that his judgement was not without good sense—which was to 
do this in order to give honour to the said letter T. But make tt as you 


please; I leave the choice to you. 


HE letter V here drawn is made from the I alone, and is of equal 
height & breadth; in its making it requires four turns of the com- 
pass, & I have marked here the centres whereon the point of the com- 


pass should be placed. 


Says Martianus Capella, ore constritto, labrisque prominulis exhibetur. 
That is to say, V should be pronounced in a voice somewhat con- 
fined at the beginning, & with the mouth closed; then the voice should 
come forth in full volume through lips projecting a little, as its form 


aalt — - 


| 
* 
4 
| 


THE THIRD BOOK 145 


shows. [he figure and shape of this letter V are altogether like that of 
the Greek letter Lambda,—that is, the Greek L—but with this differ- 
ence, that the V has, as you see, the point at the bottom and is open at 
the top, and Lambda, on the contrary, is pyramid-shaped, that is to say, 
flat below and pointed at the top. 


Says Priscian in his first book, wherein he treats De accidentibus 
litera, is of its original nature & force a vowel; but it is very often 


a consonant; sometimes a simple consonant, & at other times a double — 


consonant, being made use of by the ancients in the same way that the 
Æolian Digamma fF was. Priscian’s words are as follows: ‘V vero [loco] 
consonantis posita, eandem prorsus in omnibus vim habuit apud Lat- 
inos quam apud Æoles digamma F. Vnde a plerisque ei nomen hoc 
datur quod apud Æoles habuit olim F Digamma, id est Vau, ab ipsius 
voce profectum, teste Varrone et Didymo, qui id ei nomen esse osten- 
dunt, Pro quo Cæsar hanc figuram : scribere voluit, quod quamvis illi 
rete visum est, tamen consuetudo antiqua superavit. Adeo autem hoc 
verum [est ] quod pro Aolico F digamma, V ponitur; quod sicut illi sole- 
bantaccipere digamma F, modo proconsonante simplici, teste Astyage, 
qui diversis hoc ostendit versibus,ut in hoc versu, Ogxopevoc Fekevav edt- 
kwmi8a; Sic NOs quoque pro consonante plerumque simplici habemus, V 
loco F digamma positum, ut, 


At Venus haud animo nequiquam exterrita mater. 


Est tamen quando tidem Æoles inveniuntur pro duplici quoque conso- 
nante digamma posuisse, ut, Neotoga de Fu naidoc. Nos quoque videmur 
hoc sequi in præterito perfecto tertiæ et quartæ conjugationis in quibus 
I ante V consonantem posita producitur eademque substracta corripi- 
tur, ut Cupivi, cupii; Cupiveram, cupieram; Audivi, audii; Audiveram, 
audieram. Inveniuntur etiam pro vocali correéta hoc digamma illi usi; 
ut Aleman: Kat xeiua nue te DaFiov. Est enim dimetrum iambicum, et sic 
est proferendum F, ut faciat brevem syllabam. Nostri quoque hoc ip- 
sum fecisse inveniuntur, et pro consonante V vocalem brevem accæpisse. 
Ut Horatius Sylvæ trissyllabum protulit in Epodo hoc versu: 


Nivesque deducunt Iovem, nunc mare, nunc sylvæ. 


Est enim dimetrum iambicum coniunétum pentimert hæroicæ quod 
aliter stare non potest, nisi Sylvz trissyllabum accipiatur.’* 


* Priscian, 1, IV, 20, 21. 
The original text bas ‘pen- 
themimeri' for pentimeri.57 


* Or-Alcmacon. The greatest 
lyric poet of Sparta. Flour- 
ished in the 7th century, B.c. 


f Epodes, x11, 2. 


146 CHAMP FLEURY 


That is to say: ‘Indeed this letter V, being put in place of a consonant, 
had in the Latin tongue always and everywhere a force similar to that 
which the F digamma had in the Æolian tongue; for which reason V 
has been called by many persons bythe same name that the Æolians had 
for thé said F digamma, which was Vau,according to its pronunciation, 
as witness Varro & Didymus, who said that it was called Vau; for which 
Vau Cesar chose to write this figure +; but although this figure seemed 
apt for the said V7, nevertheless ancient custom carried the day, and it 
was written thus—V. It is so true that the said V was used for the 5, Æo- 
lian digamma, that, just as the Æolians sometimes used the F digamma 
for a simple consonant, as Astyages shows in divers quoted verses, as 
in this one, Ooxopevoc -elevav edikwmida, SO the Latins often used V as 
a simple consonant in the stead of F, digamma, as in this verse: 


At Venus haud animo nequiquam exterrita mater. 


It happens also that the Æolians used their said digamma for a double 
consonant, as in this example: Nectoga de Fu nadoc, which practice the 
Latins seem to follow in the perfect and pluperfect tenses of verbs of the 
third & fourth conjugations, in which I, standing before V consonant, 
is lengthened in quantity, & when the V is dropped, the I remains short; 
as in Cupivi, cupit; Cupiveram, cupieram,; Audivi, audit; Audiveram, audi- 
eram. The Æolians also used their F digamma, leaving the preceding 
vowel short; witness the Greek poet Alcman:* Kat xeiya mug te 8aFtov. 
This last is an iambic verse, which should be scanned in such wise that 
the F leaves the preceding vowel,which isc Alpha, short. The Latins did 
likewise, leaving the vowel short before V,as Horace did when he made 
Sylua a word of three syllables,—Sy-/z-2,—in his Epodes,when he says: 


Nivesque deducunt Iovem, nunc mare, nunc sy-lu-2.t 


This example is an tambic dimeter, coupled with an heroic pentameter, 


which cannot be scanned unless the word Syluz is divided into three 


syllables.’ 


if Have quoted Priscian at great length, to show abundantly the proper 
pronunciation and all the other qualities of the V, to the end that it 
may be used as it should be; and to show that the Germans pronounce 
it as a consonant better than any other nation that I know on this side 
of the mountains, when they say, Fivat in aternum fundens mibi dulce 


Se PU ee ee ee a ee ER 


THE THIRD BOOK 147 


falernum. And, in like manner, Fifo for vivo, Firtus for virtus, Finum for 
vinum, & a thousand others. The Italians pronounce it like a vowel after 
Gand Q, when they say Lingu-a, Aqu-a, and separate it from the A; and 
they pronounce as if it were followed by an O—Linguo-a, Aquo-a. We do 
not pronounce it as they do, which some consider to be a defect in us, & 
contrary to the art of grammar. 


HE letter X here drawn, made from the Ialone,requires eight turns 
of the compass,which are marked in their proper places in the draw- 
ing. It is broader at the bottom than at the top, where it is only eight 
units and two halves in breadth, as can be seen plainly in said drawing. 
Ï Have said that it is made from the I, & this is true according to my 
theory, although Galeotus Martius Narniensis said that it is made 
from a C reversed & the Greek Sigma; and the reason that moved him 
thereto is that X has the force of C and S,witness the excellent author, 
Martianus Capella,who says: X quicquid C et S formavit exibilat. That is 
to say, X is equivalent in force & in punctuation to C and S. Becareful, 
when you draw it and write it, not to make the opening as broad at the 
head as at the foot, or to put the foot at the top, as I see a great many 
mistakenly do; for the letter would be spoiled thereby. 
Esides the wise teaching of the worthy Martianus, already quoted, 
according to Priscian, in his first book, wherein he treats “De acci- 
dentibus litera, X is equivalent to G and S; for he says: X duplex, modo 
proC S, modo proG S, accipitur; ut Apex apicis, Grex gregis.* X, he says, 
isa double letter, that is to say, is equal to two letters—sometimes to C 


*1, VII, 43. 


148 CHAMP FLEURY 


and S, and sometimes to G and S, as we see in the declension of these 
nouns & their like: Apex apicis, Grex gregis. In times past, the Latins, be- 
fore they had borrowed from the Greeks the letter X,—which, be it said, 
is different in form, for it resembles the Greek Chi, and not =1—wrote 
for X the said letters CS and GS in this wise—c Apecs apicis, Regs regis, 
Nucs nucis, and Gregs, gregis,as I saw in Rome, in divers ancient epitaphs, 
and as anyone can still see in the book of Epitaphs of Ancient Rome, 
printed in that city when I dwelt there. 
HEN the monosyllabic preposition Ex is combined with words 
beginning with S, the S cannot be written and is not to be pro- 
nounced, because three consonants may not stand together; as Ex and 
sequor, exequor; witness Priscian in the first book and the passage above 
cited, where he says: Nunquam enim S nec alia consonans geminari potest 
alia antecedente consonante. Never, he says, can S or any other consonant 
be doubled after another consonant. For which reason X, being a double 
consonant, cannot suffer S to follow it. Which rule many writers donot 
observe, for lack of paying due attention thereto, 
if Find many men who err in the proper pronunciation of X,when, in 
such words as Exaro, Exerceo, exequor, and a thousand others written 
with the preposition Ex, they Say JEUX, pronouncing NCUXAVO, VOUXETCED, 
yeuxequor; which isa great fault in the Latin tongue. If they would learn 
to pronounce rightly, following the rules of the excellent authors above- 
named, they should pronounce the words as if they were spelled Ecsaro, 
Ecserceo, Ecsequor, and then they will pronounce them very well. 
AY it not be displeasing to them, & toall other nations, that I speak 
of their faulty pronunciations; but let them reflect that what Ido 
is done to serve the public good, and to admonish them to accustom 
themselves to pronounce properly, which is one of the most laudable 
things that can be observed in every language & in every speaking man. 
HE Italians too, under correction, seem to me to err therein; for 
they make the letter thin & soft, as if they were pronouncing an 
S between two vowels, which has not so great force as Sigma 
between two vowels. If they wish to say, Uxor mea sicut 
vitis abundans, or Exequias patris exequar, they 
pronounce the words as if they 
were spelt, Usor mea, or 
Esequias patris 
esequar. 


Pere a ae a ee ee ee 


ete ms, Ade eed in de 7 ee 


+’ n> 


el ee 


THE THIRD BOOK 149 


HE letter Ypsilon, here drawn, & fashioned from the I alone, is as 

broad at the headasit is high, & at the foot is of the exact breadth of 
the foot of the said I. And to be duly made it requires six turns of the 
compass, for which I have marked the places where the point of the com- 
pass must be set. This letter Y is called in Greek Y yiov, that is to say, in 
Latin, Y tenve,* & in French, Y that should be given a soft sound, or, as 
Martianus Capella says, pronounced appressis labris spirituque procedens, 
that is to say, proceeding & issuing between the lips with the breath. Itis 
properly a Greek letter, & the Latins appropriated it, to write only those 
Greek words in which it requires to be written and pronounced. We use 
it, not only in words which we have taken from the Greek, as Ypocrite, 
Ypocrisye, Physique, Metaphysique, & many other similar ones, but in our 
French words, too, as when we say, ‘Enfans sans soucy; ‘En esmoy ne 
sont jamais; ‘Et pourquoy? ‘Bon temps les meyne;’ ‘A tout joyeulx sou- 
las’ —Soucy, Esmoy, Quoy, Meyne,and Loyeulx. In like manner,innumerable 
other French words are written with Ypsilon,which may be tous a mani- 
fest proof that the Greek letters were current here before the Latin. The 
Latins, as I have said, did not use Ypsilon, or Zéta,and do not use them 
now, unless in words which they have borrowed from the Greeks, Wit- 
ness Priscian,who says at the end of the chapter “De literarum commuta- 
tione, in his first book: Ypsilon et Zeta tantummodo ponuntur in Gracis dic- 
tionibus, quamvis in multis veteres hac quoque mutasse inveniuntur, et proy,V; 
pro Z, vero quod pro SS conjunétis accipitur, vel pro S et D posuisse: ut Fuga, 
Murrha, pro ®uyu, Mueea; Sagunthus, Maffa, pro Zakuvôoc, Mala; Odor 
quoque ano tov ole; Sethus pro ZuBoc dicentes, et Medentius pro Mezen- 
tius. Ergo Corylus et Lympha ex ipsa scriptura a Gracis sumpta non est 


*He means that the Greek 
Wihoc and the Latin tenuis 
are synonymous. 


*Priscian, 1, VIII, 49. 


7 11.9. The true text bas ‘tu- 
isque for ‘tuis qua, © ‘li- 
mant’ for ‘libant.’5® 


150 CHAMP FLEURY 


dubium, cum per Ypsilon scribantur ano tov kogudov, kat THs Auuouc.* That is 
to say: ‘the two letters Y and Z are used only in Greek words, although 
they are often found changed into other letters; as when V is used for 
Y,and SS joined, or S & D, for Z, as in these words: Fuga, Murra, for 
Duyn & Mugea; Sagunthus and Maffa for Zaxuvec and Mala; Odor also 
is said for ano tou o¢ew; in like manner they said Serhus for Zu8oc, and 
Medentius for Mexentius. Therefore Corylus and Lympha, being taken 
from the Greek, must without doubt be written with y, since in Greek 
they are ano Tou KoguAoU, kat The AUUHC, IN which there is Ypsilon.’ 


N the beginning, when the Latins received and put in use the said 
Ypsilon, some wrote it & others did not, & those who did not choose 
to write it, put in its place a V, vowel | U], as in the words Cymex, Cumex: 
Cypressus, Cupressus; Inclytus, Inclutus, as we can see in the works of the 
ancient poet Lucretius,from whom we shall take only this one example, 


which is at the beginning of the third book: 


Tu pater es rerum inuentor, tu patria nobis 
Suppeditas præcepta, tuis qua ex INCLVTE chartis 


Floriferis vt apes in saltibus omnia libant.t 


ie this wise many Latin words derived from the Greek have changed 
Ypsilon into V, as may be seen in these words of frequent occurrence: 
Pupvroc, Rhomulus; Mukoc, Buxus; Toepueeoc, Purpureus; Xuc, Sus; Muc, 
Mus; Tovu, Genu, and a thousand other like words; but in the greater 
number it is left untouched. 


if Must not forget to say here that Ypsilon was invented longago by the 
noble philosopher, born in the island of Samos, Pythagoras, in which 
letter he represented the age of adolescence,when youth is drawn toward 
pleasure or toward virtue; the allegory being that Hercules, that is to 
say, man inclined toward virtue, when he was at the said age of adoles- 


cence,walking one day through the fields alone, & lost in thought, came 


to a broad road which forked and divided into two roads, one of which 
was very broad and the other very narrow; and onthe broad road was a 
dame named Pleasure,who held out her hand to him to bid him come; 
& on the narrow road was another named Virtue,who likewise wished 
to make him enter upon her road. Of which allegory Cicero, in the first 
book of his De Officiis, wherein he treats of Temperance, has left us an 


EE ET 


2 


EE er ET Ne Se ee Se ne QU EE En, € 


ie BEIRDSBOOK 151 


account in writing when he says, citing Xenophon: Namque Herculem 
Prodicus dicit, ut est apud Xenophontem, cum primum pubesceret, quod tempus 
a natura ad deligendum quam quisque viam viuendi sit ingressurus, datum 
est extjsse in solitudinem, atque ibi sedentem diu secum multumque dubitasse, 
cum duas cerneret vias, nam Voluptatis, alteram Virtutis,vtram ingredi melius 
esset.” That is to say: “Ihe ancient Greek Prodicus, as it is written in the 
works of an author, also a Greek,named Xenophon, once said that Her- 
cules,at the age of puberty,was walking one dayalone through the fields, 
when he came, thinking deeply, to a road that divided into two roads— 
one of Pleasure, the other of Virtue; and there he hesitated long as to 
which road would be the better to take” The ancient philosophers and 
poets opined that he chose the road of Virtue, which was the narrower, 
when they sang in his praise & described so many feats of strength that 
he performed, and so many obstacles that he persevered to overcome,to 
conquer the monsters he encountered in the said road of Virtue. 


N regard to this Pythagorean letter,divided,as has been said, into two 

roads, the one of Pleasure & the other of Virtue, the noble Mantuan 
poet, Virgil, has left us a fine description thereof, when he says, in his 
lesser works: 


Littera Pytagoræ discrimine secta bicorni, 
Humane vite speciem præferre videtur. 

Nam via virtutis dextrum petit ardua callem, 
Difficilemque aditum primum spectantibus offert, 
Sed requiem præbet fessis in vertice summo. 
Molle ostentat iter via lata, sed ultima meta 
Præcipitat captos, voluitque per ardua saxa. 
Quisquis enim duros casus virtutis amore 

Vicerit, ille sibi laudemque decusque parabit, 

At qui desidiam luxumque sequetur inertem 
Dum fugit oppositos incauta mente labores, 
Turpis inopsque simul miserabile transiget ævum.60 


HAT is to say: “The letter of Pythagoras,which is divided into two 
horns, shows us in its shape the course of our mortal life; inasmuch 
asthe noble path of Virtue stretches away on the right side, in such wise 
that at the beginning it is narrow and very difficult, but at the end, and 
above, it widens and affords space for repose. The other road,which is 


*De Officéis 1, 32.59 


152 CHAMP FLEURY 


broad, offers avery easy passage, but at the very end there is much stum- 
bling over many a sharp stone, huge rock, and steep cliff. Of a surety he 
who shall endure heat and cold, and such matters, to reach the side of 
Virtue, shall acquire all praise and all honour. But he who like a slug- 
gard shall follow every sort of idleness and riotous living, whilst un- 
thinkingly he shuns all toil & labour, he is all bemused that he remains 
infamous, poor, and wicked, and that he has passed his time wretchedly 
and employed it ill’ 
OOK well to it, therefore, O ye young children, & leave not behind 
you the knowledge of well-made letters—the true buckler against 
adversity and all ills, and the means to attain to the supreme felicity of 
this mortal life, which is perfect virtue; which at the last bestows upon us 
the prize of honour, the wreath & the palm, leaving the slothful & the 
vicious behind, to perish wickedly in their ordure & their execrable life. 


O give you more clearly to understand this divine Pythagorean 
letter Ypsilon, I have drawn it for you once more. Imagine that 


THE THIRD BOOK 153 
. the upright and broadest limb is the road of Adolescence, the broader 


of the two arms the road of Pleasure,and the narrower arm the road of 
Virtue, to the end that you may make of it a guerdon of your good 
memory and virtuous contemplation, to hang in your study and closet. 
Le upon the graceful & beautiful image that I have made for you, 
O young and excellent lovers of Virtue, and mark well how on the 
slope of the road of Pleasure I have drawn and attached a sword, a 
scourge, rods, a gibbet, & a flame, to show that at the end of Pleasure 
wait & follow all lamentable ills & grievous torments. On the side of 
the road of Virtue, I have made another slope, whereon I have placed 
and attached the figures of a laurel wreath, palm leaves,a sceptre,and a 
crown, to give it to be known and understood that from Virtue proceed 
all pure glory, all reward, all honour, and all royal preéminence. 
Have also drawn close by another figure allegorized in the ancient 
manner; you may make such profit of it as you can, taking in good 
part my humble diligence in giving you pleasure and honest service. 


Could say many other fine things, but for this time I will pass on, 

coming to design and.describe the last letter of our Attic alphabet, 
Zeta, which Frere Lucas Paciolus did not include in his Divina Propor- 
tione; & the reason why he omitted it, I have never been able to under- 
stand, nor indeed do I care to know it. 


* See note on page 84. The 
same work is cited also on 
pages 116,122, 147. 


Ÿ L, VIII, 49. 


TAN, 2E 


154 CHAMP FLEURY 


HE letter Zeta here drawn, and made from the I alone, is at the 
bottom as broad as it is high, & at the top its breadth is eight units 
and two halves only, and it requires only two turns of the compass, for 
which I have marked the centres upon which to place the point of the 
said compass. : 
N his second book, De Homine Interiori, Galeotus Martius says: Zeta 
non es litera, sed duplex sibilus; id est, duplex SS et hoc ejus figura bis in- 
torta indicat™:‘ Zeta is not a letter, but is a double hissing sound which 
is equivalent to twoS’s, as its shape, requiring two turns of the compass, 
shows.’ Zeta, in truth, is not a Latin but a Greek letter, although the 
Latins have appropriated it as they have the Ypsilon, to write words 
derived from the Greek, which they have taken into their language; 
witness Priscian whom I have quoted hereinbefore where I treat of 
the said Ypsilon, when he says: Ypsilon et Zeta tantummodo ponuntur in 
Gracis dittionibus.t Zeta is said to have the force of a double letter, as 
X has; witness the said Priscian at the end of his first book and also a 
little farther on. It was used by the ancient Latins for two S’s and for 
S & D,and as he says: Zeta vero proSS conjunttis accipitur, vel proS et D; 
ut Massa pro Mala et Medentius pro Melevtioc; and a little before the 
end of the first book and the passage quoted: Quin etiamS simplex habet 
aliquam cum supra dictis cognationem, unde sæpe pro Zeta eam solemus gemi- 
natam ponere. Ut “Patrisso pro Mateilu, Massa pro Mata.t That is to say: 
‘And similarly S has some affinity & connection with the above-men- 
tioned letters X & Zeta, for which reason often our custom is to double 
the said S for Zeta, as in the words Patrisso for Natpilw and Massa for 


ee ee ee ee eS ee TU 


\ 
1 
4 
\ 
‘ 
N 
à 


THE THIRD BOOK 155 


Mala. Martianus Capella does not say whether it is a Latin or Greek 
letter, nor does he teach how it should be pronounced, except that he 
says simply that Appius Claudius held it in detestation because, when 
it is pronounced, it resembles the teeth of a dead man, who usually has 
his teeth all awry. This is what he says: Zeta vero iccircoc Appius Claudius 
deteStatur quod dentes mortui dum exprimitur, imitatur. It should be pro- 
nounced as if one wished to utter Sand D, or two S’s, which rule seems 
to be well observed at Bourges, where when they wish to pronounce it, 
they say Esd, and come very near the ancients, who instead of saying 
Gaxa, pronounced and very often wrote Gasda. Celius Rhodiginus, in 
the XVIII chapter of book VII of his Ancient Lessons, writes that 
Zeta is not only the name ofa letter, but signifies the seat of the judges 
and masters of the Chamber of Accounts in the old days in Athens, 
when he says: Sicut Zeta dici valet locus in quo Zetetæ obuersantur, erant 
enim eo nomineAthenis Magistratus quidam ad quos referebantur qui Reip. 
aliquid deberent, nec soluerent.* That is to say: ‘Zeta signifies the place 
where the masters and judges of the public revenue formerly sat in 
Athens, before whom those persons were summoned and compelled 
to come who were in arrears and did not pay in full.’ 


O then, on this subject, I can say that the worthy ancient fathers 
covertly and purposely placed this as the last letter in alphabetical 
order, to indicate that those who are perfectly accomplished & learned 
in well-made letters are inspectors and sovereign judges of the revenue 
and of the knowledge of the seven Liberal Arts & of the nine Muses, 
without knowledge of whom man can be neither learned nor perfect. 
And to show before your eyes and very clearly that this noble letter 
Zeta is so well-proportioned that it contains within itself every token 
of perfection, I have so drawn it below that the seven Liberal Arts and 
the nine Muses with their Apollo are placed therein in such marvellous 
proportion and disposition that you can plainly understand that the 
means which I have used to make and design all our preceding Attic 
letters is more reasonable and better advised than that of those who 
choose to make them of seven or eight or nine units of height 
only and not of ten,as you have seen and under- 
stood that I have done through- 
out all that has gone 


before. 


* The proper reference is 
Chapter xxvil, not XVI. 


156 CHAMP FLEURY 


FOS VA Gay nO) eV 1b tee Saar 
VoL RV Ste Bas il ER cd ENTRE 
ME RES: 


= 
Gl 
A 


| 
a 
J Ip 


e 


| Polywna<ey Aficivomea. 
Mélporne. fag Avithmenca. 
Cho. A Geomcetvia. 
Erato My Rhetortca 
Thhadh/ talertses + 


/ e 


My SEED, 


Ie here is the fine drawing of our last letter, Zeta,which showsclearly 
the accord between the seven Liberal Arts and the nine Muses 
with their Apollo, according to arithmetic as well as according to ge- 
ometry, of which I have heretofore written fully in the Second Book, 
when I was speaking of the flageolet of Virgil and of the Homeric gold 
chain. I will say furthermore that this letter Zeta is so well-made that 
in its thick limb, which is oblique and makes two oblique angles, there 
is such an arrangement from the first angle below to the last above that 


Tih EEIRD BOOK 157 


we find there in shortened perspective nine steps, as of a ladder, which 
Ihave marked as they coincide with the small squares contained in the 
large square in which the said letter is described. Consider them well 
and note how they diminish from point to point up to the elbow at 
the last angle at the top of the said large square. These steps signify in 
allegory the upward path to beatitude, which they can follow easily 
enough who have perfect knowledge of well-made letters, and of arts 
and sciences. In connection with which I have drawn above the letter 
a small divine spirit, standing upon his feet ready to award the crown, 
the sceptre, the palm, or the laurel wreath to all those who shall well & 
diligently labour to acquire learning, rising from step to step, even to 
the state of perfection wherein is found every accomplishment worthy 
of high reward and of exalted honour. 


| ei at this point pardonably make an end of my work; but be- 
cause I see that many who write in Attic letters know not how prop- 
erly to make the points and distinctions which are necessary according 
to the divers meanings which occur in writing, I will present a small 
drawing of those that are most requisite, & will describe them briefly 
as the worthy ancient fathers used them in past times. 


HE points which are most necessary between Attic letters are the 
triangle, the hooked point, & the four-sided point. The triangular 


* These points are as given 
by Tory, though they are not 
all according to our modern 
forms. 


158 CHAMP FLEURY 


point should be drawn with two turns of the compass & with a straight | 
line described belowthesetwoturns.The hooked pointis properly made 
bytwo turns of the compass,with an oblique line drawn through third 
of the larger circle & touching the circumference of the smaller circle. 
The four-sided point is made by four turns of the compass, the two 
upper ones being a little smaller than those below, as you can see in the 
drawing. 


Bserve well the situation of each point between the two outer lines 

of the square, for some require to be placed higher than others. 
The four-sided point should be placed upon the lowest line,uponwhich 
all the Attic letters must be placed in order to be written one after an- 
other ina straight line. The hooked point should be placed a line higher 
than the other, that is to say, on the second line from the bottom. And 
the triangular point should be placed on the third line, as appears in 
the drawing, wherein all three are properly made. 


Ecause in writing Attic letters we often use abbreviations, I have 

drawn in this last figure only three sorts of points, because they are 
more generally used than any other points or distinctions; and before I 
treat further of them I wish to say & define what a point is in writing. 
I say then, according to Constantine Lascaris, who says in his Greek 
grammar, Stryyn cott diavoiac tedetac onueiov: 61 Puntlum ef sententia per- 
fete signum; that ts, ‘the point is the sign of a complete sentence.’ And 
this point should have four sides. From this are made other points, 


which are called improper & imperfect points; & these are the hooked 


& the triangular. An imperfect sentence is indicated bya hooked point. 
Anda suspended sentence,which requires that something more should 
be added, is marked by the triangular point, of which the second angle 
isa little smaller than the two others. I here describe & draw these three 
kinds of points only, according to the fashion of the ancients, and ac- 
cording as the Attic letter demands, knowing full well that the writers 
on grammar in the Latin tongue treat of several other points, of which 
Aulus Antonius Orobius mentions eleven different kinds, which are, 
Punttum suspensioum / Geminum puntlum: Semipunttum, Hypoplivoma , 
Comma! Colon + Periodus. Interrogatiuum$ Responsinum 3 Admiratiuum 
& Parenthesis ( )*T hat is to say, the suspensive point, the double point, 
the half-point, the hooked point, the incisive point, the breathing point, 


THE THIRD BOOK 159 


the concluding point, the point of interrogation, the responsive point, 
the point of admiration, and the interposing point. All of these, to the 
number of eleven, secretly & in divine fashion confirm me that I have 
justifiably divided my square within which to make the Attic letters, 
into eleven points, which is a manifest token that I have not gone astray, 
but have studiously and surely discovered the secret of the even & odd 
numbers, that is to say, of eleven points containing between them ten 
uniform units, required according to the divine, and yet heretofore al- 
most unknown, opinion of the excellent ancients. I can truly say and 
conclude, without boasting, that I have drawn forth this ancient secret 
from the darkness, and first of all modern authors have brought it into 
plain sight and set it down in writing, thereby to do devoted & heart- 
felt service to the public weal,to which I have always dedicated myself 
with all my poor ability, & still dedicate myself with all my 
heart; thus bringing my work toan endand giving 
praise to our Lord God for having inspired 
& assisted me so mightily that I have 
attained perfection in the 
proper proportions 
of our Attic 
Letters. 


feet EN OP AIS CHIR D 
Rat) eu BOOK 


DESCRIPTION OF THE HEBREW LETTERS 


| [ might well have sufficed, O devoted lovers of well-made 

494| letters, that I should have written and set forth by rule the 

4%] true and proper proportions of the Attic letters and should 
QD 


of points, of lines, and of turns of the compass. But seeing that I might 
confer some further useful & humble service upon you, I have thought 
that it would be expedient and worth-while to add at the end of our 
work upon the said Attic letters several other kinds of comely & well- 
made ones. I have simply drawn them for you, without designing them 
by number of lines or points as with the aforesaid Attic letters, think- 
ing that, if it shall please you to follow my method, which I have here- 
inbefore presented at length, by observing closely at least the difference 
that there may be between some of them and others, you will be able 
to make them according to fixed rule & certain measure. I place before 
you, I say, diverse sorts and shapes of letters, to the end that you may 
use either the ones or the others at your virtuous pleasure. In the new 
springtime, when the flowers & violets are in all their vigour & beauty, 
I see that in a garden some pluck, for their pleasure, a lovely red rose 
or a white one, others a wall-flower or a pretty violet, others pansies, or 
daisies, and others Encholyes, or Soucyes, or-Abefoings; and this, according 
as the flower gives forth a pleasant perfume, or hasa fine colour, to give 
pleasure to those who pluck it and like to have such as delight them. 
So in like manner you can use Hebrew letters, or Greek, or Latin, com- 
monly called Roman, & which I have called by their true name—Attic 
Letters; or you can use French letters, as you may choose. I know that 
there is a proverb in verse: 


Velle suum cuique est, nec voto vivitur uno, 


‘Everyone to his choice, and one does not live in a single wish.’ Where- 
fore then, taking in good part my humble efforts, you will make use of 
- those which please you most, or, it may be, of all, reflecting that what I 
do is for the purpose of employing my time to some good, which shall 
be my witness that I have not been useless all my life, and that I should 
be very glad if I could know that you would take pleasure in something 
that I have done, no matter what. If I can know that I have done some- 
thing agreeable to you, it will bean awakening anda spur to me, to exert 
myself to do better if Ican,with the benign assistance of our Lord God. 


162 HEBREW: LELTERS 


For that the Holy Scripture is in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin, 
& that these three languages, because of the Holy Scripture, are called 
Holy; and also for that the title of the Cross of our Lord Jesus, which I 
have seen in Rome in the Church of Santa Croce, is written in Hebrew, 
in Greek, and in Latin, I have placed these three sorts of letters—that 
is, Hebrew, Greek, Latin—first; and of these three, the Hebrew letters 
first of all, because they are said to be the most ancient, & to have been 
invented by the first men, as historians have discovered. 

After these three will come the French letters in at least four vari- 
eties, that is to say, Cadeaulx, Forme, Bastard, and Tourneure. Besides all 
these divers sorts & shapes there will be the Chaldaic letters, and there- 
after, the Arabic, the Fantastic, the Imperial and Bullatic, and, finally, 
the Eutopic, and the Floriated, with the method of making ciphers of 
intertwined letters, as you will be able to see clearly hereafter one after 
the other, in their order. 


To come then to our first letters, which are the Hebrew, it is neces- 
sary for you, first of all, to observe & knowthat they must be read in the 


opposite way from the Greek, the Latin, and the French; for we must. 


read them to the left, & backward; that is to say, we must begin to read 
at the end of each line and read back to its beginning. You must know 
that the Hebrews have twenty-two letters in sound, but of characters 
they have twenty-seven; for five of the said twenty-seven are doubled, 
and yet they have & keep the same sound in pronunciation, although 
they are represented by different characters. By these five, the begin- 
ning, the middle, & the end of words is variously written. Furthermore, 
we must observe that all the Hebrew lettersare consonants, and to rep- 
resent our five vowels, A, E, I,O, & V, the Hebrews use twelve kinds of 
points, which are called in Latine Aspices, or Punéta, by means of which 
and of the said twenty-seven characters the whole Hebrew language 
is composed. 

In the Hebrew language, then, there are twenty-two letters, which 
are named and called as follows: Aleph, Beth, Gimal, Daleth, He, Vau, 
Zain, Heth, Teth, lod, Caph, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samach, -Aain, Pe, Sadic, 
Coph, Res, Sin, Tau. 


Alephis the name of A; Beth, of B; Gimal, of G;Daleth, of D; He, of 
the aspirate H; Vau, of V; Zain, of Zeta; Heth, of Ch; Teth, of T; Lod, 


HEBREW LETTERS be Ge, 


of I; Caph, of C; Chaph, of Ch; Lamed, of L; Mem, of M initial, and the 
other. Mem, of M final; Num, of N initial,and the other Nwm, of N final; 
Samach,of S medial;e Aain, of A; Pe, of P; Phe, of Ph; Szdic, of S medial; 
the second Szdic, also of S medial; Coph, of C; Res, of R; Sin of S, some- 
times initial and sometimes medial and sometimes final, according as 
it is over the first or the last part of one of the two points called, one 
Seboleth, and the other Ceboleth; as you can plainly see at the beginning 
of the grammar of Brother Ximenez de Cisneros, Cardinal of Spain, 


Archbishop of Toledo, and Chancellor of Castile. 


Of these twenty-seven letters there are, as I have said before, five 
which have two characters each, namely, Sadic, Phe, Nun, Mem, & Chaph, 
& thus all the Hebrew letters make twenty-seven different characters. 
These five double letters are always used at the end of words, and the 
other five, which are the same in name & different in shape, are used at 
the beginning & in the middle of words, but are never placed at the end. 


Of these twenty-seven letters there are four which are pronounced 
with the lips, and these are Beth, Vau, Mem, & Pe. There are five which 
must be pronounced with the teeth: Zain, Samach, Sadic, Res, and Sin. 
There are five others which must be pronounced with the tongue: 
Daleth, Teth, Lamed, Nun, and Tau. There are four which must be pro- 
nounced with the palate: Gimal, Iod, Caph, & Cof ph |, There are four 
others which must be pronounced with the gullet: Aleph, He, Heth, Aain. 
Observe further that among the twenty-seven letters there are four 
which are similar in design to four others, & for this reason you should 
be careful not to be deceived by their resemblance. These four are Beth, 
Gimal, Vau, Mem, which resemble Caph, Nun, Res, and Samach. Which, 
although they are in some degree different in name & sound, yet they 
have this difference between them in their shape: the first four tend 
toward a quadrangle and a half quadrangle, and the other four toward 
the circular and semi-circular shape. 


The names of the points heretofore mentioned which serve as vow- 
els are these: Pathach, Cames, Hatheph pathach, Cere, Cegol, Seba, Hatheph 
segol, Hiric, Holem, Hatheph cames, Surec premier, & Surec segond. They are 
twelve in number, of different names and different shapes, but there 
_ are three which serve for A: Pathach, Cames, Hatheph pathach. There 


164 HEBREW LETTERS 


are four which serve for E: Cere, Cegol, Seba and Hatheph segol. There is 
only one for I, and that is Hiric. Holem and Hatheph cames stand for O, 
and the two Swrecs for V,as you can see in the drawing following after 
the twenty-seven letters. 


The Hebrews have in addition another kind of point,which iscalled 
Dagues,which is put in the middle of certain letters; & then the letters 
which have this point within them are sounded so full in pronuncia- 
tion that it seems as if they were doubled; and when these letters are 
written without the point called Dagues, they are pronounced softl 
and thin. There is, too, another point, called Raphe, which is altogether 
similar to the vowel point called Pathach,and this Raphe is placed over 
the same letters in which Dagwes can be placed. These letters in both 
cases are Beth, Gimal, Daleth, Caph, Pe and Tau. There are five other 
letters which do not take the said point Dagwes within them, and these 
arec Aleph, He, Heth, Aain, Res; nevertheless, this letter Res takes a point 
within it sometimes, and then has fuller sound in pronunciation; and 
this point is not called Dagues but Mapich, as you can see in the gram- 

mar of the above-mentioned Chancellor of Castile, likewise 
in the grammar of Augustinus Justinianus, Bishop 
of Nebia, and very fully set forth in that 
which the very learned Reuclin 
wrote, to the marvellous 
advantage of 
earnest stu- 
dents. 


166 HEBREW LETTERS 


DRAWINGS AND NAMES OF POINTS — 
SERVING AS VOWELS 


“ei Pathach 
mr Camez 
me Hateph pathach ‘ ne 
Rien: Cere 
Seba aa 
"un Hateph segol | 
k Hiric | ¥ 
h | Holem ee 
ae SATE? aad 
mn Surec 

ss 
j LISTES 


And because syllables are made of the He 
aforesaid points which are used for the five ona : 
the manner of assembling the said letters, and this will 
using the letter Berh as an example and illustrating ye 


our points used as vowels. 


HEBREW LETTERS 167 


Beth, then, having beneath it the point called Pathach, is equivalent 
to the syllable, Ba. And likewise, when it has Cames under it, it is equiv- 
alent toBa. When it has under it Hateph pathach,itagain is pronounced 
‘Ba; when it has Cere under it, it is equivalent to “Be; and so it is when 
Cegol, Seba & Hatheph segol are written under it; having any one of these 
under it, Beth is pronounced like and is equivalent to Be; when it has 
Hiric under it, it ts equivalent to“Bi; when it has Holem or Hatheph cames 
under it, it is equivalent to‘Bo; and when it has under it the first Swrec or 
after it the second Surec, it is equivalent to‘Bz. We shall have then in 
succession “Ba, Ba, Ba, Be, Be, Be, Be, Bi, Bo, Bo, Bu, and Bu. And thus 
you can do with the said points with all the other letters, except that 
Dagues, Raphe, and Mapich have their own special places, as I have 
said above. From syllables we make words, and from words discourse, 
as you can fully see in the excellent authors whom I have cited and in 
_ many others. 


Observe further that the Hebrews make their numbers by the let- 
ters of the alphabet, and this in another fashion than the Latins and 
French are accustomed to do. For the Latins and French write an I for 
one, they put two I’s for two, & three I’s for three, four I’s for four, & V, 
which is the fifth letter, for five. But the Hebrews write Aleph for one, 
Beth for two, Gimal for three, Daleth for four, He for five, Vau for six, 
Zain for seven, Heth for eight, Teth for nine, od for ten; Caph for twen- 
ty, Lamed for thirty, Mem for forty, Num for fifty, Samach for sixty, Aain 
for seventy, Pe for eighty, Szdic for ninety, and Coph for one hundred; 
Res for two hundred, S%z for three hundred, & Tau for four hundred. 

Some write five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred, eight hun- 
dred, & nine hundred by the five final letters; that is to say, five hundred 
by Chaph, six hundred by Mem, seven hundred by Nwn, eight hundred 
by ‘Phe, and nine hundred by Sdic. But this method of numbering by 
the five final letters is not followed or observed by all; for the common 
usage is to put together the letters in this fashion: for five hundred, 
they use Tau and Coph,for Tau alone equals four hundred and Coph one 
hundred, & so with the other letters, combining them with each other 
according to the number which it may be your desire to make or write. 


For brevity’s sake I pass on and come to the Greek letters, whereof 


I shall speak superficially as I have spoken of the Hebrew letters. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE GREEK LETTERS 


7] do. In the Greek anes chere a are twenty-four Letters,the 


Zi ta, Ita, Thita, lota, Cappa, La Mi, fous Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sig- 
ma, Taf, Ypsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi,and Omega. The said twenty-four letters 
are made as follows in capitals: A,B,T,A,E,Z,H,0,1,K, A,M,N,=,0,T, 
P, =,T, Y, ®, X,Y, Q; & in small letters, called cursive letters, as follows: 
a, B,y, 8, €,2, HL], 9,1, xLk ], A, ny v, & 0,1, 0, 0,7, U, >, X,Y, 0} whereof the value 
and pronunciation are as follows: 4/pha is equivalent to an A; Vita is 
equivalent to B,and sometimes to V consonant; Gamma is equivalent 
to G, Delta to D; Epsilon is an E pronounced short; Zita is equivalent 
to Esd, that is to say, Z; Ita is equivalent to an I long in metrical quan- 
tity,and is often changed from Greek into Latin for a long E; Théta is 
equivalent to Th; Jota is I, always a vowel in Greek (in Latin and in 
French the letter I is sometimes a consonant); Cappa is sometimes 
equivalent to K, sometimes to C, & sometimes to the letter Q; Lambda 
is equivalent to the letter L, 1% to M, and Gui to N; XZ is equivalent 
to X; Omicron is equivalent to short O; Pi is equivalent to P, Rho toR, 
Sigma to S, Taf to T; Ypsilon is equivalent to I pronounced softly, for it 
must be pronounced much more.softly than the Latin vowel I; Ph is 
equivalent to Ph, Chi to Ch, Psi to Ps, and Omega to a long O. 

These twenty-four letters are divided, first of all, into two parts, 
vowels and consonants. The vowels are seven in number, as follows: 
Alpha, Epsilon, Ita, Iota, Omicron, Ypsilon, and Omega : À, E, H, 1, O, Y, Q. 
The consonants are seventeen in number, that is to say: Vita, Gamma, 
Delta, Lita, Thita, Cappa, Lambda, Mi, Gni, Xi, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Taf, Phi, 
Chi, Psi. B,T,A,Z, ©, K, A,M, N, =, I, P,=,T, ®, X,V, & in small letters, 
B, y, à, 4,6, « |, À, u,v, 1, ©, 0,7, 6, x. 

Of the seven vowels, two are primarily long in metrical quantity, 
and these are Ita and Omega: H,Q,u,u. Two are short—Epsilon, that is 
to say, short E without an aspirate, and Ozzicron, that is to say, short O: 
E,O,:,0. There are also three common ones, which may sometimes be 
long in quantity and sometimes short; and these arec A/pha, Iota, and 
Ypsilon: A,1,Y,a,1,u. Of these seven vowels six proper diphthongs can 
be made: for from Alpha and Iota is made the diphthong AI, a; of 
Alpha and Ypsilon is made the diphthong AY, av; of Omicron and Iota is 


5] HE Greeks do not read backward from right to left as the 
|| Hebrews do, but from left to right as the Latins & French. 


nc ens seh 


GREEK LETTERS 169 


made OL oi; of Epsilon and Ypsilon, EY, ev; of Epsilon and Iota, El, 1; and 
of Omicron & Ypsilon OY, ov. These proper diphthongs are pronounced, 
Ae, Af, Ef, I, and ©. Besides these five* proper diphthongs there are 
four improper ones, and they are called improper because they are not 
formed of two separate vowels, but the last vowel is in some sort less- 
ened in its size or changed in plan. These improper diphthongs are 
four in number & are made as follows: The first is made of the whole 
Alpha and of Iota, only half as tall as the said  4/pha; and in small 
letters it is made of the wholec 4/ph4 and of the Iota changed into a 
very small point and placed under the middle of the said 4/pha thus: 
Au, a3 and this diphthong thus made is pronounced like A. 

The second improper diphthong is written as a capital with Ita, & 
Tota following it only half as tall as Ita; in small letters [ora is convert- 
ed into a small point placed under the middle of the said Iza, thus: 
Hi,4; and this diphthong thus written is pronounced like long I. 

The third improper diphthong as a capital is made with Omega,and 
with Iota following of half the size of the Omega; in small letters the 
Iota is changed into a small point placed directly under the middle of 
the Omega, thus: Qi, 0; and this is pronounced like long O. 

The fourth and last improper diphthong, in capitals, is made of the 
Ypsilon and of Iota only half its size; but in small letters the Iota must 
be attached to the Ypsilon behind, and have its tail hanging below the 
lower limb of the Ypsilon, thus: Yi,u; and this improper diphthong ts 
pronounced like Ypsilon, half soft and half hard. 

The rest of the Greek letters, as I have said before, are all conso- 
nants and are seventeen in number, of which eight are semi-vowels; 
Zita, Xi, Psi, Lambda, Mi, Gni, Rho, & Sigma, which are formed thus: 
Z, =,¥, A, M, N, P, =; of which semi-vowels three are double, Z, =, & WY, 
and four liquid, A, M, N, P. The other consonants are mutes and these 
are nine in number: B, I, A, K, I, T, ©, ®, & X; of which three are not 
aspirated: K, II, and T; three are aspirated: ©, ®, and X; and three are 
medial, that is to say, half not aspirated and half aspirated: B,I’,and A. 

Of all these twenty-four letters hereinbefore enumerated & made 
in their proper shapes, syllables can be made and from syllables, words, 
& in like manner from words, discourses, as you can see abundantly in 
the grammar of Constantine Lascaris, of Chrysoloras, of the learned 
and elegant Urban, of Theodosius Gaza, and of many other noble and 
exalted authors both ancient and modern. 


* Tory names six but 
gives the pronunciation 
of only five, omitting OI. 


HERE FOLLOW THE GREEK CAPITAL LETTERS 


:ABTAEZ 
HOIK A 
-_ Om 
PET 
X YA 


Peo oKiP TION OP ThE LATIN LETTERS 


- commonly called Roman letters are in value &shape pure- 
ly Greek, as you can see & understand if you but study them carefully. 

The Romans took from the Greeks the Alpha, the Vita, the Gamma, 
of which last they made their letter L by turning it upside down. They 
took Epsilon, Zita, and the long vowel called Ita,and made of this last 
their aspirate. They took Iota'and Cappa. They took Lambda, and by 
turning it upside down they made their fifth vowel, V. They took Taf, 
Ypsilon, and Chi, of which last they mistakenly made the letter X. Of 
all these above-named letters the symbols are as follows: A, B, turned 
to make L, E, Z, H, I,K, A turned to make V, M,N, O,B, T; Yand X, 
which make sixteen in all. Sothat of letters purely Latin, there are only 
C, D, G, & the letter F, and the F is not Latin but first Æolian & then 
Greek. For the Æolians, who invented it, are a noble nation of Greece; 
they made it, as I have said already several times, of Gamma placed 
upon another Gamma. The letter R, in like manner, is made from the 
Greek letter Rho, by adding to ita half-recumbent limb. In this way 
we can conclude that the Latins have only five letters of their own, C, 
D,G, Q,and S. Our French letters are not taken thus from the Greek 
or from the Latin letters, but rather are indigenous and native in their 
shapes. One might sometimes think that they bear some resemblance 
to the Hebrew letters because for the most part they approach their 
shape, as you will be able to see hereafter in the French Lettres Cadeaulx, 
in the Lettre de Forme,and likewise in the Bastarde,and the Tourneure. 

The Latins then have, in letters borrowed and their own, twenty- 
three in all: A,B,C, D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T, V, X, Y, Z. 
These are divided by the grammarians, first, into six vowels: A, E, I, O, 
V, Y,and seventeen consonants; B,C, D, F,G,H,K,L,M, N, R.Q,R,S, 
T, X, Z. The vowels are divided into two classes—prepositive [placed 
before ]and subjunctive [placed under ]. The prepositive are three: A, 
E, O; the subjunctive also are three: E, V, and I. The Ypsilon is neither 
placed before nor under another letter to make a Latin diphthong; 
but it often is in French diphthongs, as you can readily understand by 
reading books in the French language. 

The vowels are called prepositive or subjunctive because some can, 


172 LATING LE ECE Ro 


as it is said, be placed before or placed under the others, to make diph- 
thongs, which are five in number, AE, OE, AV, EV, EL in Latin; but 
in French there are, besides these five, seven others as he can see who 
shall look well to it. | 
The seventeen consonants are divided into seven semi-vowels: L, — 
M,N, R,S, X, Z; and eight mutes: B, C, D, F,G, P,Q, T. The semi- 
vowels are divided into four liquids: L, M, N, R; & two double letters: 
X and Z. The two letters K & S, according to Aldus and other 
good authors, remain simple & pure consonants. 
From letters one makes syllables, 
from syllables words, and 
from words discourse. 
Do your duty 
by them. 


HERE FOLLOW THE SAID LET Tens 
CALLED LATIN OR ROMAN. 


* Quilz doibvent quadrer © 
accorder du quart a leur lettre 
Lineaire & Textuaire. 


Ÿ See Note 27. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE FRENCIVEE DIRES 


SIN common usage we have in France several sorts and fash- 
A |S ionings of letters: first, the Cadeaul.x, which are used at the 
SH] beginning of books written by hand and at the beginning 
#5] of verses also written by hand. These Cadeaulx must be 
higher than the letters on the line which follow them, by a fourth of 
the height, and for this reason they are called Cadeaulx,as who should 
say Quadreaulx, that is, they must be adjusted to the quarter [quart] 
of the lineal letters in the text.* The teachers of writing embellished 
& enriched them with foliage, faces, birds & a thousand pretty things, 
at their pleasure, to show what they could do. Sigismund Fante,a noble 
Ferrarian, in his book entitled Thesauro De Scrittori,t has drawn them 
in excellent proportions, if not that they are a little too thin & starved- 
looking. I set them down for you here in their usual shape and without 
labelling them; if you wish to embellish them, do it at your pleasure. 
N like manner we have the Lettre de Forme, which must be five times 
as high as it is broad, as in the I and the other letters made from I. 
The long letters 8,9, f, 6, &, f, p, 4, f, 62, & 3 must be seven times as high 
as they are wide, which rule the said Sigismund Fante did not suffi- 
ciently well observe in his book, for he makes them too long and thin. 
N addition to the Lettre de Forme, we have the Lettre BaStarde, which 
is of almost the same nature as the said Lettre de Forme, if not that it 
is thinner and is to be made only as small letters. The said Sigismund 
has chosen to make it in his book by squares and circles; but he has 
erred therein by making it too starved and thin, and by splitting the 
top and the tail of the long letters into two points. 
E have, too, the Lettre Tourneure, with which the ancients wrote 
epitaphs upon the tombs of the departed. They wrote them also 
on glass, and on tapestries, as we can see in many old monasteries; but _ 
to-day printers use them at the beginning of their books and chapters. 
N printing there are many diverse shapes of letters, like the Lettre 
de Forme which is called Canon, & Lettre Bastarde with which books 
have always been printed in France heretofore; there are the Lettre 
Ronde, Lettre Bourgeoise, Lettre de Sommes, Lettre Romaine, Lettre Grecque, 
Lettre Hebraique, and the Lettre Aldine, which is called Aldine because 
it was introduced by Aldus, the noble Roman printer who once lived 
and printed in Venice. It is graceful because it is thin, as the Greek 
small letter is, but not the capital. 


L 


17 LETTRE TOURNEURE 


Hm oR mh 


Medeor ADWITIONAL LETTERS 


Ollowing these four styles of French letters, that is to say, Cadeaulx, 

Forme, Bastarde, & Tourneure, I have drawn for you the letters which 
the aforesaid Sigismund says to have been used by the Persians, the 
Arabs, the Africans, the Turks, and the Tartars; for he speaks thus of 
those which I have copied after him: Questo Alphabetto serve a Persi, a 
Arabi, Aphricani, Turchi, e Tartari. That is to say: “This alphabet is used 
by the Persians, the Arabs, the Africans, the Turks, and the Tartars.’ 
These letters must be read toward the left like the Hebrew, and their 
names are as follows, beginning always at the end of a line: 4/iph, Be, 
Te, The, Zim, Che, Chi, Dal, Zil, Ix, Xe, Sin, SSin, Sat, Zat, Ty, Zi, Hain, 
Gain, Fe, Caph, Eiep, Lam, Mim, Nim, Vau, Eliph, Lam, Ge, Nulla. These 
are thirty in number, and there are some which are named like the He- 
brew, although they are different in form. 


Have followed the said Sigismund Fante, also in the names and fig- 

ures of the Chaldaic letters, which are twenty-two in number & are 
also written from right to left, like the Hebrew & Arabic letters. Their 
names are as follows: Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Vau, Zain, Heth, 
Theth, lod, Caph, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Hain, ‘Pe, Zadi, Cof, Ress, 
Scin,Tau, The said Fante says that the Hebrews used them in the time 
of Moses, when they were in the desert. His own words are as follows: 
Questo soprascritto Alphabetto e Caldeo el quale usuano, li Hebrei nel tempo de 
Moyse nel deserto. That is to say: “This alphabet is the Chaldaic, which 
the Hebrews used in the time of Moses in the desert.’ 


HEN, after the Chaldaic letters, come in their order the Goffes 

and Lourdes, which Sigismund Fante calls Imperial and Bullatic 
letters; but I call them Goffes & Lourdes, because they were left in Rome 
at the time when the Goths conquered it and reduced it to ashes, to- 
gether with all learning and letters, in such wise that, if it had not been 
for the volumes of the Digests, the whole Latin language would have 
perished and been destroyed. The unhappy Romans, then, after their 
destruction, in their anger with the Goths, when they wished to say 
something was lumpish, they called it Gofte, and as time passed on it 
was corrupted into the word Goffe, which word they use to this day for 
anything lumpish and uncomely. 


PERSIAN, ARABIC, AFRICAN, TURKISH 
& TARTAR LETTERS 


GS UV L 
> 3.5 CR 
LÉ Ww lw WS « 
GOLD, 
ordi SR 
Oe Ps 


180 


le nee ee 


CHALDAIC LETTERS 


GOFFES, IMPERIALS OR BULLATICS 


182 


ADDITIONAL; LETTERS 183 


HE Fantastic letters come next in order, which I have drawn for 

you after the copy that I brought from Rome. Well I know that 
there are those who will make sport of them; but I shall patiently let 
them say what they will, contenting myself with taking pleasure in 
conferring an honourable service upon those who love good things. 
Even if there are some who decry them, good men will praise them & 
will esteem them no less for their antiquity than because I bring them 


before the public eye. 


HE Egyptians in their ceremonies wrote in hieroglyphics, as the 

ancient author Orus Apollo* tells us at great length in Greek. We 
find the fact in Latin, too, and I have translated it into French to make 
a present of it toa nobleman & good friend of mine. The Egyptians, 
as I have said, wrote in hieroglyphics, to the end that the unlettered 
people could understand their ceremonies without having a profound 
knowledge of philosophy. For the works which they wrote were de- 
vised according to the nature of beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and a thou- 
sand other like things, as you can easily and abundantly read in the 
said Orus Apollo. I have seen some of these hieroglyphics in Rome 
in a porphyry in the great square in front of Notre Dame la Ronde, 
and on an obelisk and pyramid which stands near the church of the 
Cordeliers, in Ara Coeli, near the Capitol,and on another obelisk near 
La Minerve; also in a house near the Palace of Mount Jordan where 
there is painted an ox’s head with two horns and a frog hanging to the 
two horns, and above it an eye; & next that a kettle full of fire,a man’s 
face, a vessel from which water is flowing, violets in a jar, an eye over 
a shoe, a ship’s anchor, a crane holding a stone with one of her feet, 
and a dolphin on a lamp which is held by a hand. In this fashion, as I 
have said, the Egyptians wrote hieroglyphics, as you can see and un- 
derstand in the works of the above-quoted Orus Apollo, who says at 
the beginning of his work: Ævwm significantes, Solem O Lunam descri- 
bunt, eo qui sint hi “Planeta avi elements. Aivum aliter scribere volentes, Ser- 
pentem pingunt caudam reliquo corpore tegentem,eum vocant Ag ypttj Vreum, id 
est Basiliscum; quo quidem aureo formato “Deos circundant. Ævum autem 
dicunt Aig yptij per hoc animal significari,quem cum sint tria genera serpentum, 
catera quidem moriuntur; hoc solum et immortale. Hoc © quodlibet aliud 
animal solo sputum afflans absque morsu interimit. Unde cum vite et necis 
potestatem habere videatur, propter hoc ipsum Deorum capiti imponunt. The 


* See Note 50. 


* The Steel used for Striking 
fire from a flint. 


+ Sir Thomas More. 


184 ADDITIONAL LETTERS 


translation is as follows: The Egyptians, wishing to signify life everlast- 
ing, paint a sun and a moon, because these are two planets which are of 
very long duration. Wishing to signify this life everlasting in another 
way, they draw a serpent having its tail concealed under its body; and 
this serpent is called by the Egyptians Vreus, that is to say, Basilisk. 
They make it of gold, then put it around their Gods, and say that im- 
mortality is signified by this serpent, because there are three sorts of 
serpents but this one alone is immortal, and is of such nature that, by 
hissing alone, without biting, he kills every other beast & living thing. 


Return then to our Fantastic letters,and say that, in imitation of the 

Egyptian manner of writing, they are made by symbolsand pictures, 
but not in accordance with natural philosophy, like those of the Egyp- 
tians. The first is an A, represented by an open compass; the second isa 
B, represented by a Fusy;*the third is aC, represented bya handle; & so 
with all the others in succession. If you desire to see them made in the 
Egyptian fashion, you will find some beautiful and well-made ones in 


many excellent passages of Polyphilus. 


Eing desirous to spare no pains in conferring graceful service upon 

you, I have added also the Utopian letters, which I call Utopian 
because Morus Langloist has drawn them in the book which he called 
Insula Utopia, the Utopian Isle. These are letters which we might call 
Voluntary letters, made at one’s pleasure, as are those which the makers 
of ciphers and decipherers drew in such shape and formas they chose, 
to compose new things, which cannot be understood without knowing 
the alphabet of the said Voluntary letters. 


i making an end of our work, and praising our Lord God; likewise 
in taking humble and grateful leave of you, I have put with all the 
aforementioned divers sorts of letters, those which are Floriated, that is 
to say, surrounded with antique flowers & foliage, to be used 
in making letters of gold or to be coloured 
in beautiful books, whether 
written by hand or 
printed. 


FANTASTIC EEE TERS 


186 UTOPIAN AND VOLUNTARY LETTERS 


A 4 à i 


6908 


in 


G © 9 CA 
FC. 
I LS 


x y à 


LS 


Bear 


187 


PLORIATLED LETTERS 


(i 


& 


== 


DS 


9! xs) > 
Mem NAN) 


KI 


LL 


188 CIPHERS AND INTERLACED LETTERS 


» (D 


at 


K M 


NN ¢ 


À 


1 

a 

4 j 4 
ni. 

d 

A 

L 


à 


SHORT RULES FOR MAKING CIPHERS 


HE method of making ciphers, which are commonly inscribed in 
gold rings, on tapestry, on glass, in paintings, & in many other ways, 
to represent the names and surnames of the gentleman and his lady, is 
to take the first letters of the said names & surnames, & interlace them 
in a combination which is well adapted to them. For there are letters 
which accord better with one another than some others; and when such 
accord is pleasing to the eye, be sure that those divine letters covertly 
denote some suitable infusion of grace between those whose cipher is 
thus made. But observe that the best ciphers are of only two letters, or 
of three or four at most. If there are more it isa wonder if they doaccord 
well; for too many letters together are no more graceful than a bunch 
of thorns, since some being placed upon others make such confusion 
that one does not know at all what the letters are. One does not know 
whether they are letters or thorns or, as they say,a magpie’s nest. Make 
them of as few letters as you can, and model them upon those which I 
have here made for you. 
Cue can be made also of Greek letters by interlacing them with 
eachother; also one might well make many other different sorts of 
letters, according as the gentleman or the lady, or both together, might 
choose. Different persons wish them made in different ways. I find some 
who arrange them well enough, and these, as I said before,are they who 
make them of two or three letters. I find others who combine so many 
letters that there is not one of them which is left entire; and, what is 
worse, they curtail some of them, mutilate others,and make others one- 
half too small, which is contrary to the art of all well-made letters. It is 
well for you to observe that letters are so noble and so divine that they 
should not be in any wise misshapen, mutilated, or changed from their 
proper shape. For, as I have said and shown most abundantly in many 
places of this work of ours, they resemble the human body, in accord- 
ance with the proportions of which I have drawn the Attic letters. If 
one should take away the arm, the leg, or the head of a man, it would 
no longer be a man, but would rather resemble a stump or the trunk 
of a tree. So, in like manner, if one mutilates a letter in any way whatso- 
ever, it is no longer a letter, but a counterfeit, or a thing so evil that one 
could not give it a fitting name, unless he should say that it was a mon- 
ster. On the other hand, if too many letters are gathered together, they 


190 CIPHERS 


can no more be recognized or distinguished than would be fifteen or 
twenty men who were all heaped one upon another. When we see two 
men standing side by side, or three, or perchance four, we can clearly 
distinguish one from another; but even among four, there is some one 
who cannot be wholly seen, because of the obstacle made by the one 
standing in front of him. Wherefore, my good lords & devout lovers of 
well-made letters,when it shall please you to make ciphers in gold rings 
or otherwhere, make them of two, of three, or of four letters, without 
changing or reducing any one from its proper shape, & you will do well. 
[ Have drawn them in only ten ways, some of two letters, others of 


three, some of four, and others of more; but I have drawn those of 


more than four, not to persuade you that you should always do so, but 
to show you that a too great number of letters, some upon others, make 
confusion among themselves, and are not so pleasing to the eye as two 
or three, or four at most. I could have drawn five hundred or a 
thousand for you in various graceful fashions, but 
if it is your pleasure to amuse yourself with 
them, make as many or as few 
as you please. It is a 
very respectable 
pastime to 
practise, 


THE END OF FETE ats 
FOR MAKING CIPHERS. 


Now I will make an end to this book of ours, giving praise to ré: Lord 
Jesus for having assisted me with his favour and begging him to give 


you his love to your utmost satisfaction. 


ay: 
Le 
as 


tx 


> LEA 
more 


ree 
“Soa 


és 
4 
si 
F3 


(| 


SD : 


A 


b 
N 
Ne 
NN | 


fees re 

Megs as, 

“fig £ iY A EAN, 
Q 


VINGPAS 
op le ZA 


eg. 
Sie > 
N N 


Here endeth this present book, with the addition of thirteen different 
styles of letters, & the manner of making ciphers for gold rings, or other 
things. The printing was finished on Wednesday the twenty-eighth 
day of the month of April in the year one thousand five hundred twen- 
ty-nine, for Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, author of said book,and 
bookseller living at Paris, who has it for sale on the Petit Pont at the 
Sign of the Pot Cassé; and for Giles Gourmont, also a bookseller living 
in said Paris, who has it for sale on Rue Sainct Jaques at the Sign of the 
Trois Coronnes. 


NOTES 


NOTE 1. PAGE vi. 

The works of Dürer which Tory mentions here are, first (Geometry): Underweysung 
der Messung mit dem Zirckel und ‘Richtscheyt in Linien, Ebnen und ganzen Corporen, Nurem- 
berg, 1525; second (Fortifications): Etliche Underricht zu Befetigung der Stett, Schloss und 
Flecken, Nuremberg, 1527; and third (Proportions of the Human Body): Hierinnen sind 
begriffen vier “Bucher von menschlicher Proportion, Nuremberg, 1528. On pages 34-36 will 
be found a discussion of a part of the first of these volumes, there referred to as Diirer’s 
‘book on Perspective.’ 

This reference to works published in 1527 and 1528 is interesting chiefly as showing 
that Tory rehandled his work to some extent between the date of the ‘Privilege’ (1526) 
and that of the ‘achevé d'imprimer’ (April, 1529). 


: NOTE 2. PAGE viii. 
This passage may be made a little more easily intelligible by a brief paraphrase of 
_ the description given by Aulus Gellius in the book and chapter cited by Tory. 

The ancient Lacedæmonians, to ensure the letters sent to their generals against 
capture and detection by the foe, devised missives of this sort. Making two rods ex- 
actly identical with each other, they gave one to the general and kept the other in the 
hands of the magistrates at home. When occasion arose to despatch instructions to 
the army in the field, the magistrates wound a strip of leather, of moderate thickness, 
spirally around the rod, joining edge to edge. They then wrote lengthwise over the 
junctures of the strip, so that the writing was undecipherable when the strip was re- 
moved from the rod, and intelligible only when it was applied to the identical rod in 
the hands of the general. This kind of epistle the Lacedæmonians called oxutdAn. 

Erasmus says in the ‘Proverb’ cited: 

‘Trisis scytale was used of something baneful and frenzied, or of a message of a sort 
which brought pain. . . . Which, indeed, seems capable of being applied not without 
sense either to a very short letter or to one that is cryptic and written about secret 
matters, or to one that is distressing and announces bad news. What a scytale Laconica 
is, however, Aulus Gellius states. But it will be better to write his own words.’ Then 
follows the passage of Gellius summarized above. 

It has proved to be a matter of so much difficulty to reconcile Tory’s numbering of 
the Proverbs (or Adages) of Erasmus with that in any of the available editions, that 
the effort has been abandoned as hardly worth while. The first edition (1500), under 
the title Collectanea adagiorum, contains 800 items, put together with scanty eluci- 
dations. The second edition (1508), conceived on broader and more learned lines, 
justified a new title and redistribution into groups of hundreds (centons) and thousands 
(chiliades). The title of this edition is: _Adagiorum Chiliades Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami 
quatuor cum sesquicenturia ex postrema autoris recognitione. The later editions with num- 
bered references follow-this system. Other editions have the proverbs arranged alpha- 
betically, but with no numbers. 

It happens that this first reference to the Adages is almost the only one in which 
Tory’s numbering corresponds with that of the edition of 1508. 


NOTE3. PAGE xxi. 
Rabelais borrowed this bit of ‘skimming’ of Latin in the sixth chapter of the Second 
Book of Pantagruel, in the humorous discourse of the Limousin scholar. 


194 NOTES 


According to M. Auguste Bernard (Geofroy Tory, page 22 and note), some editor of 
Rabelais, probably Pasquier, claims that Tory meant this as a criticism of Rabelais for 
introducing him (Tory) in his romance in the character of Raminagrobis. 

‘There is one little flaw in this fiction, namely that the dates are against it; Champ 
Fleury appeared several years before Pantagruel. This, of course, does not prove that 
Rabelais did not introduce Tory in his work, but upon what facts is this attribution 
of Raminagrobis to Tory based? Solely on the assertion of one of those seventeenth- 
century scribblers of foolish notes who lived on the great authors of the sixteenth as 
rats live on the most valuable mss—by nibbling them. What possible connection is 
there between Raminagrobis, cleric and poet, whom Rabelais represents as dying about 
1546, and Tory, layman and prose-writer, who died twelve years earlier?’ 

In his introduction to Lawrence and Bullen's edition of Rabelais (London, 1892) 
M. Anatole Montaiglon says: ‘ He [Rabelais] fabricates words, too, on Greek and Latin 
models with great ease. . . . Sometimes he did this in mockery, as in the humorous 
discourse of the Limousin scholar, for which he is not a little indebted to Geoffroy 
Tory, in the Champ Fleury.’ 

In Sir Thomas Urquhart’s translation of Rabelais (1653) the quoted passage is thus 
rendered, with a sufficient prelude to show how Rabelais introduced it. The sentence 
borrowed from Tory is printed in italics. 


‘Upon a certain day . . . Pantagruel walking . . . without that gate of the city 
through which we enter on the road to Paris, encountered with a young spruce-like 
scholar that was coming upon the same very way, . . . asked him . . . My friend, 


from whence comest thou now? The scholar answered him, From the alme, inclyte, 
and celebrate academy, which is vocitated Lutetia. What is the meaning of this? said 
Pantagruel to one of his men. It is, answered he, from Paris. Thou comest from Paris 
then, said Pantagruel; and how do you spend your time there, you my masters the 
students of Paris? The scholar answered, We transfretate the Sequan at the dilucul and 
crepuscul; we deambulate by the compites and quadrives of the urb; we despumate the Latial 
verbocination; and like verisimilary amorabons, we captat the benevolence of the wings? 
omniform, and omnigenal feminine sex.’ 


NOTE 4. PAGE 2. 

The ‘little Latin books’ published by Tory before the appearance of Champ Fleury, 
showing his proficiency in that language, were: 

1. An edition of Pomponius Mela, the geographer of the first century. There is a 
long dedicatory epistle to Philibert Babou; also an ‘avis’ to the reader, at the end, to- 
gether with two quatrains, one addressed to Pomponius, the other to Babou—all these 
in Latin. The book was published in 1507-1508. 

2. An edition of the Cosmographia of Pope Pius II (printed by H. Estienne in 1509). 
Here also is a long dedicatory seis to Germain de Gannay, and a note to the reader— 
both in Latin. 

3. A short Latin poem, written by Tory, was printed at the end of an elegiac poem 
on the Passion written in Latin by ‘Gulielmus Dives,’ or Willem van Rycke (Riche, 
Dives). This book was printed by Josse Bade. 

4. An edition of Berosus Babilonicus, ‘who,’ says M. Bernard, ‘was then [1510] in 
great vogue, thanks to the falsehoods of Annius of Viterbo.’ Three editions of this 
work were printed by the Marnefs. It contains a dedicatory epistle to Philibert Babou, 
written in Latin by Tory. 

5. In 1510, Tory published a collection of miscellanies, Valerii Probi Grammatici, 
etc., to which he contributed not only the usual dedicatory epistle (this time to Babou 


NOTES 195 


and Jean Lallemand, mayor of Bourges), and an address to the reader, but also several 
bits of verses, including some riddles—all in Latin. 

6. An edition of Quintilian’s Insitutiones in 1510, carefully revised by several mss, 
with a letter of transmission (in Latin) from Tory to Jean Rousselet, at Lyons. 

7. An edition of Leon Baptista Alberti’s De re ædificatoria (1512), with the usual 
editorial equipment of a long Latin dedication to Babou and Lallemand. Printed by 
B. Rembolt. 

8. An edition (1512) of the Itinerary of Antoninus, a list of the roads of the Roman 
Empire, said to have been prepared during the reign of Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius 
Antoninus, a.D. 288-317). It was the second book prepared by Tory for H. Estienne. 
The dedicatory epistle (in Latin) is addressed to Babou alone, and there are two Latin 
addresses (at the beginning and the end) to the reader. 

9. Gotofredi Torini Biturici, in filiam charissimam, virguncularum elegantissimam, Epi- 
taphia et Dialogs. Tory’s daughter Agnes, his only child by his wife Perrette le Hullin, 
died in August, 1522, at the age of ten. Tory wrote a Latin poem upon this death (it 
was published in 1523), which, as M. Bernard says, contains some very interesting 
details concerning Tory’s life. Among other things we learn that he was not only a 
scholar, but an artist of great merit. M. Bernard prints in his Bibliography the com- 
plete contents of this little book, which fill eleven pages of the second edition of his 
work on Tory. 

The above is an exact list, according to M. Bernard, of the works published by 
Tory before the appearance of Champ Fleury. Full bibliographical particulars of all of 
them are given by him. 


NOPES PAGE 2. 

Erasmus, in number 1574 (not 1374) of the Adages, gives an extended account of 
the ancient lore concerning Momus—a personification of the Greek word uüpoc, 
meaning ‘censure.’ He was the son of Mother Night and Father Sleep. He censured 
Nature because she had added horns to the heads of oxen rather than to their shoulders, 
where they could use them more savagely. Minerva, Neptune, and Vulcan contended 
for primacy in the field of craftsmanship, Neptune making a bull, Minerva a home, 
and Vulcan a man. Momus, the judge of the contest, in addition to other points of 
criticism, especially derided the absence of windows and doors in the breast of Vul- 
can’s creation, wherethrough one might see what was lurking in the heart, and the 
fact that Vulcan had thrown into deep recesses those things that were generally mani- 
fest. But Venus called forth no censure except for the fact that she wore a sandal that 
squeaked, and was altogether too noisy and bothersome. 

The title of the first edition of Alberti’s Momus in the Vatican library is ‘De Principe, 
inscribed over the partially erased word, ‘Polycrates’. In the introduction he says that 
he proposes to write, after the manner of Lucian, of the prince who governs the body 
politic in mind and spirit. He chooses the gods to designate with concealed irony 
those whose actions are ambitious, sensuous, ill-tempered, lazy, and the like. To this 
end he narrates in four books the adventures of the god Momus, perverse, fastidious, 
and provoking, expelled from Olympus for the nauseous license of his tongue, and 
author of rebellious disorders in heaven and on earth. Jove, when creating the world, 
ordered the other divinities to embellish it with some useful invention. Momus alone 
disobeyed. He derided the creations of others, and, disgusted with the solicitations 
of the gods, filled the world with filthy animals. 

Alberti was born in Venice in 1404. As an architect he built the church of San 
Francisco at Rimini, Sant’ Andrea at Mantua, and the Pallazzo Rucellai at Florence. He 


196 NOTES 


was painter, musician, and philosopher as well; and besides the work on architecture 
mentioned as no.7 in the preceding note, he wrote on painting and sculpture. Someone 
has called him a forerunner of Leonardo. 


NOTE 6. PAGE 3. 

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect and engineer of the time of Augustus. 
His DecArchitectura, dedicated to that Emperor, includes in its scope a discussion of 
such subjects as the science of architecture, materials, styles, orders, public buildings, 
sites, methods of decoration, hydraulic engineering, astronomy, and engineering. For 
most of the historical and theoretical parts of his work he drew upon his studies of 
Greek authors, of whom he gives lists. His authority was final, and his prestige unim- 
paired during the Renaissance. A translation of his work by the late Professor Morris H. 
Morgan was published by the Harvard University Press in 1914. 

As Vitruvius did not actually ‘write in Greek,’ Tory presumably means that he 
exposed himself to ridicule by interlarding his work with Greek words relating to his 
profession, and with such phrases as these: proslambanomenos, hypate hypaton, hypate me- 
son, mese, nete synhemmenon, paramese nete diexengmenon, nete hyperbolaeon. 

NOTE 7. PAGE 7. 

Lucian, a Greek satirist and wit of the second century. The main events of his life 
and particulars concerning his numerous works can be found in many books of refer- 
ence. The Greek title of the work quoted by Tory is Ilpodakia 6 ‘HeakAne, Lucian’s 
word for the personage who unriddled to him the riddle of the painting is KeAtoc, 
translated by Erasmus, in Latin, ‘Gallus,’ and by Tory, Français.” 


NOTE 8. PAGE 8. 

Guillaume Budé (Budzus), 1467-1540, a French scholar and friend of Erasmus. 
His work on ancient coins, “Dec4sse, is well known and is mentioned later by Tory. 
The abbreviated clause from the Pandects stands for Ex lege prima, de servo corrupto. It is 
found in the Corpus Civilis, book x1, 3, a passage taken from the twenty-third book 
of the Commentaries of Ulpian on the Edicts (4d Ediétum). Tory’s text, then, should 
be changed thus: there should be no period after Ex, and the comma after ser should be 
changed to a period. The section mark (§) indicates that the words are taken from 
a passage beginning, Quod ait prator. 


NOTE 9. PAGE 9. 

Pierre de Sainct Cloct. Perhaps the reference is to Pierre de Saint-Cloud (formerly 
spelled Saint-Clost), a twelfth-century troubadour, who wrote part of the Roman de 
Renard. He is mentioned in Alexandre, written about 1180. There was one ‘Petrus de 
Sancto Clodovaldo,’ who escaped burning for heresy in 1209 by turning priest. The 
Book of the Game of Chess may have been Jehan de Vignay’s French translation of Jacobus 
de Cessolis’s Libellus de Ludo Scacchorum, printed by Martin Huss at Toulouse in 1476. 
(Caxton’s English translation of de Vignay was printed by him at Bruges in 1476 [copies 
in Lenox, Morgan and Huntington libraries] and again at Westminster about 1483.) Or 
it may possibly have been Cessolis’s original Latin text, or an Italian version, Giuco degli 
Scacchi, printed by Miscomini at Florence in 1493. 


NOTE 10. PAGE 9. | 
Jehan Lemaire (1473-1524) was a Belgian poet and historian, attached to the court 
of Margaret of Austria as her librarian. His most original poems, Episfres de l’amand 


NOTES 197 


verd, were addressed to her. His chief prose work, Illustrations des Gaules et singularitez 
de Troyes connects the royal house of Burgundy with Hector, son of Priam. It has been 
said of him that in his love for antiquity, his sense of rhythm, and the peculiarities of 
his vocabulary, he anticipated the “Pléiade—Ronsard, du Bellay, Dorat, etc. 

Chrestien de Troyes, the most celebrated of the French mediæval poets, flourished 
from 1150 to 1182. His Erec et Enide, Cliget, Chevalier de la Charrette (based on an earlier 
Lancelot), Chevalier de Lyon, Le Conte del Graal, or Percevale, all deal with the Arthurian 
legend and are the first Arthurian romances extant. There have been translations of one 
or more of his works into Old Norse, German, English, and Welsh. At the present writ- 
ing (autumn of 1927) an interesting discussion is being carried on in Speculum (the quar- 
terly publication of the Medizval Academy of America) concerning the credit rightly 
due to Chrestien for the invention of the Arthurian legend. 

Hugon (Huon, Hugues) de Méry (Méri) was a thirteenth-century poet, whose 
Tournoiement de Lantechrift, in 3000 verses, appeared about 1234. 

Raoul (de Houdenc), another poet of the same century, wrote several other ro- 
mances besides the ‘Romanz des eles de la proéce, which is referred to by de Méry. This 
last and the Songe d’ Enfer are said to have been forerunners of the Roman de la Rose. 

Paysant (Paien) de Mesieres (Maisieres) wrote La demoisele a le mule, or Le mule sans 
frein, about 1100. 

Of René Massé, Chronicler to the King, to whom Tory here applies Propertius’s 
words concerning Virgil, M. Bernard says that he is entirely forgotten in our day. He 
has, however, a notice in the Biographie Universelle. 


NOTE 11. PAGE to. 

Arnoul and Simon Graban (Greban) wrote mystery plays; in 1450 Arnoul wrote 
Passion, in 34,600 verses; and with Simon, his brother, a dramatization of the story of 
the apostles in 62,000 verses. 

Pierre de Nesson, an early fifteenth-century poet, was on the staff of Jean I, duc de 

Bourbon, who was captured at Agincourt in 1415. Among his works are Lay de Guerre, 
Paraphrase de Job, and Hommage a Notre Dame. 
_ Alain Chartier, 1390(1392)-1430(1433), has been called the literary dictator of the 
early fifteenth century. He wrote La “Belle“Dame sans merci, Livre des Quatre Dames, and 
Quadriloque invectif, in which he describes himself as ‘humble secretaire du Roy nostre 
sire et de mon tres redoubte seigneur monseigneur le regent du royaulme de France, 
dauphin de Viennois.’ 

George Chastelain, 1404-1474, came of a crusading family and fought under Phi- 
lippe, duc de Bourgogne. He wrote Chronique de Chastellain (a history of his times); also 
ballades. 

La Lunette des Princes, a political and allegorical poem wherein Reason supplies 
miraculous spectacles with which to see things at their true worth, was written by 
one Meschinst (1420-1491), a steward of Anne de Bretagne. 

Cretin (Guillaume Dubois, surnommé Guillaume),‘Chantre de la Sainte Chapelle et 
Chroniqueur du roi,’ died about 1525. He was a poet of some renown in his day, and 
several volumes of his verses have been published. His five volumes of Chronicles are 
in manuscript in the ‘Bibliotheque Nationale. 


NOTE 12. PAGE 11. Translation of the rondeau. 

That thou the best and surest way mayst follow, I counsel thee to learn to love thy 
God; to be loyal with lips and heart and hand; boast not; of mockery be sparing; talk 
less; more thou shouldst not learn or undertake. Except thy chosen subjects, trouble 


198 | NOTES 


not to understand; busy not thyself to comprehend things too far above thee, and seek 
peace among all men. 

A gift thou hast promised be never slow to give, and always thou shouldst seem to 
know. Let few be well assured of what thy will may be. To thy friend dissemble not, 
nor give false meaning. "T will please me well if thou dost understand. 

[The translator regrets that thus far Madame Dentragues, the reputed author of 
this rondeau, has eluded his search. } 

Translation of the lessons. 
1. Hast thou a master? Serve him faithfully; speak well of him; guard well his goods; 
keep his secrets’ close, whatever he may do; and be humble before him. 
11. On no account suffer thy wife to put her foot on thine; the next day the dear creature 
will try to put it on thy head. 


NOTE US MPAGE 12. 

Hieronymus Avantius (Girolamo Avanzi) edited for Aldus his first edition of 
Lucretius in December, 1500. He was an excellent, well-read Latin scholar and had 
studied Priscian and Macrobius for the illustration of Lucretius. Aldus says that he 
knew Lucretius by heart—wt digitos unguesque suos. In 1502 he published Epistles 41 to 
121 of Pliny’s correspondence with Trajan, and in the same year, and again in 1515, at 
Venice, he collaborated in editing Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius. In 1507 and 1517 
he edited Ausonius, and in the latter year the Tragedies of Seneca. As to the ‘Dialogue 
between an Oscan and a Volscian at the Roman Games,’ the reference is, presumably, 
to a so-called ‘Atellane play’@4tellana fabula),'a comic, but not wanton, kind of popu- 
lar farce that originated in Atella.’ See Livy, vu, 2. Avantius’s fabula was written to 
illustrate some of the strange forms used by the Oscans, a primitive people of Cam- 
pania. The saying, ‘Qui Osco et Volsce fabulantur, nam Latine nesciunt’ (who talk 
in Oscan and Volscian, for they know not Latin) is attributed to Titinnius, a little- 
known Roman comic poet of the ante-classical period. 


NOTE 14. PAGE 12. 

Ælius Donatus (fourth century), a grammarian and rhetorician. Taught at Rome, St. 
Jerome having been among his pupils. His Latin grammar has formed the basis of all 
similar works, to the present day. He wrote also a commentary on Terence. Many of the 
surviving scraps of pre-Gutenberg printing are grammatical texts known as Donatuses. 

Servius Maurus Honoratus (early fifth century) was a grammarian, who wrote a 
commentary on Virgil compiled largely from the work of earlier authors. It is among 
the most valuable of Latin scholia because of the many quotations from lost authors. 
He was a contemporary of Macrobius, who introduced him as one of the characters in 
the Saturnalia, praising his great learning and kindly disposition. The reference on 
page 25 is to his commentary on Eclogue 11, 106, 107, where he states that both Hyacin- 
thus and Ajax were changed into the flower. 

The works of Priscian (Priscianus), the celebrated grammarian of the time of 
Justinian, are perfectly familiar to scholars of the present day. 

Little is known of this Diomedes beyond the fact that a grammatical treatise of 
his is quoted by Priscian, so that he must have lived before the sixth century. 

The same may be said of Phocas, or Foca, who wrote a dull and trivial life of Virgil 
in hexameters—that he was quoted by Priscian, and nothing more. 

Agrestius is undoubtedly a misprint, or mistake, for Agroetius, or Agroecius, the 
author of a fifth-century work, still extant, called De Orthographia et Differentia Sermonis, 
supplementary to a work on the same subject by Flavius Caper. 


NOTES 199 


Flavius Caper, a Roman grammarian of uncertain date, is quoted with great respect 
by Charisius, Rufinus, Servius, and, especially, Priscian. St. Jerome speaks of his Com- 
mentaries as in common use. 

Valerius Probus, the earliest of the writers in this list, who lived early in the 
second century, wrote a commentary on Virgil. He is mentioned by Aulus Gellius. 
It is said that he owned a copy of the Georgics with notes in Virgil’s own hand. 


NOTE 15. PAGE 13. 

For the divers opinions regarding the invention of letters, the references are: 

Priscian, Grammatici Casariensis InSitutionum Grammaticarum, 1, 11, 7. 

Lactantius says that the Chaldeans claim that they ‘have a history of 470,000 years, 
as shown by their monuments. But we [the Egyptians?], being taught by letters the 
science of truth, know both the beginning and the end of the world.’ 

Plato, Cratylus, 388 and following folios. 

Pliny, Natural History, vu, 56. 

Josephus, —Antiquitatum Judicarum, 1, 3. 

Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, 1, x11, 65. 

The source of the idea that Carmentis took the letters from Greece to the Romans 
is No. ccrxxvu of the Fabula of Hyginus. Tacitus is mentioned only because he identi- 
fied Carmentis with Nicostrata, the mother of Evander. 

St. Jerome mentioned Esdras as the renewer of the Pentateuch in “De Perpetua Vir- 
ginitate, 212, which may be the passage referred to here. 


NOTE 16. PAGE 16. 

Architrenius—Johannes Hanvillensis, a scholar of Oxford and a Benedictine monk 
—took his name from his sometime famous work, 4rchitrenii (Dirges), a poem in nine 
books, dedicated to Archbishop Walter Rothomagenses. The work is described in com- 
plimentary terms by various commentators, some of whom ascribed to him other works, 
now lost. He flourished about 1200. 

The lines given here are quoted by Baptista Pius in chapter Lx of his —Annota- 
tiones priores, taken from a collection entitled, Annotationes doctorum virorum (published 
by Jehan Petit, in 1511), folio cxxxiiii. In verse 4 the original has ‘Attica philosophis’ 
for ‘Attica terra sophis’; in lines 8 and 9, ‘Piscosa . . . domo’ is interpolated, the read- 
ing in the original being: ‘Plena feris; fortis domino; pia regibus; aura.’ Whether the 
interpolation was Tory’s is uncertain. 


NOPE a7, PAGE r7. 

Tory seems to have been somewhat ‘mixed’ in the passage, for Angelus, cygnus, and 
Melodia are all good classical Latin, and Angelus is especially frequent in the writings 
of the Church fathers. As to the French word pinte, the N.E.D., 5.2. English ‘pint,’ 
says that the ulterior source of the word is uncertain, but omits to mention Greek 
among the conjectural ones. It is true, however, that Budé says, in DecAsse et Partibus 
Ejus (Venice, Aldus, 1522), at folio cxcv: ‘Pityna became pitna, and pitna became pinta,’ 
—added proof that ‘Pino enim græce bibo significat.’ Cheopine (English ‘chopin’) also 
is mentioned by Budé in this passage, but no Greek equivalent is suggested, and the 
N.E.D. derives it from the German schoppen. 

This Aldine edition of De Asse was dedicated to Jehan Grolier. 


NOTE 18. PAGE 18. 
Frère Robert Gaguin, ministre général de l'Ordre de la Sainct Trinité, wrote La 


200 NOTES 


Mer des Cronicques et Mirouer hySorial de france. St. Denis’s work was sent by Michael’s 
ambassador to Louis ‘le Piteable’ (see marginal note, p.18), in 823. 


NOTE 19. PAGE 18. 

‘Grecismus’ is the name, not of an author or writer, but of a poem on grammar by 
Eberhard of Bethune, a native of Flanders, who lived in the early thirteenth century. 
The poem was so called because it included a chapter on derivations from the Greek. 

Of Tardivus, Floretus, and Compotus, there is nothing to be said unless a similar 
mistake has been made with reference to them or any of them. For instance, we have 
heard of a book by one Bernadus, called Scriptor Floreti, sive Carminis moralis versibus 
leoninis. 

Alain de l'Isle, or Alanus, circa 1114-1203, was a professor in the University of Paris, 
so learned that he was called ‘Le Docteur universel.’ He was deeply interested in alche- 
my. De Parabolis is the title of a work written by him. 

Alexander de Villa Dei (Alexandre de Villedieu) was a native of Normandy who 
lived about 1200. He composed a 2645-line hexameter poem on (x) Accidence, (2) 
Syntax, (3) Prosody, Accentuation, and Figures of Speech, compiled from Priscian, 
Ælius Donatus, and others, and some unknown writers of the twelfth century. 


NOTE 20. PAGE 21. 

In the passage from Ovid, for ‘pergit,’ at the end of line 6, read ‘peregit,’ and there 
should be a question mark after ‘terras’ in the last line. The last two lines may be more 
accurately rendered thus: ‘Ah, woe is me!’ he groaned; ‘art thou indeed my daughter 
whom I have sought throughout the earth? A lighter grief wast thou unfound, than 
found.’ 


NOTE )'2.1,° PAG E22; 

Jacques Le Fevre d’Estaples (Faber Stapulensis) was quite a prominent personage 
in his day (1455-1537). He was a student and traveller, professor of mathematics and 
philosophy, translator, and commentator on Aristotle. The Sorbonne declared him 
a heretic in 1521. With a former pupil, Brigonnet, Bishop of Méaux, aided by the 
newly translated Bible, he was striving to effect improvement in the spiritual life 
of the people, The Sorbonne again attacked him and condemned several propositions 
contained in his work, and the Parliament of Paris ordered his Commentary on the 
Evangelists confiscated. He was about to flee the country when Francis I arrived in 
Paris from his imprisonment in Madrid after the battle of Pavia (1525), and appointed 
him tutor to his son Charles. He ended his career under the patronage of Marguerite of 
Navarre, King Francis’s sister, and died in 1537. 


NOTE 22. PAGE 23. 

Codrus Urceus (Antonio Codro Urceo, 1446-1500) was a native of Bologna, and a 
professor of Greek with a penchant for writing excellent Latin poems. An edition of 
his works, comprising Sermones, Epistolæ, Silva, Satyræ, Eclogæ, and Epigrammata, 
was published at Bologna in 1502. An account of his life and works, by Carlo Mala- 
gola, appeared in 1878. 

_ The lines cited are the first of a poem entitled ‘Rhythmus Die divi Martini pro- 
nunciatus,’ and the true reading is: | 
IO IO IO 
Gaudeamus 10 io 
Dulces homeriaci. 


NOTES 201 


NOTE 23. PAGE 25. 

There is no authority in the manuscripts for the reading ‘hya’ at the end of the sev- 
enth line of the passage from Ovid. The reading in most editions is ‘ia,’ ‘ia,’ but one 
manuscript, at least, has ya. There are some slight variations from the accepted text, 
in punctuation and spelling, but they are unimportant. 


NOTE 24. PAGE 29. 

Charles Bouille.—Charles de Bouelles or Bouilles (in Latin, Bovillus) was a phi- 
lologist and scholar, who lived from about 1470 to about 1553. He was a student of the 
exact sciences and of metaphysics, as well as of belles-lettres. Having taken orders, he 
held a canonry at St. Quentin, and later on at Noyon, where he devoted his repos honor- 
able to the composition of a large number of works, most of which are now forgotten, 
although some are much sought by bibliophiles. In 1511 Henri Estienne printed a work 
which is thus described by Brunet : 

Cy comence le Livre de lart et science de Geometric: avecq les figures sur chascune rigle [sic] 
au long declarees, par lesqlles on peult entendre et facillemét coprendre ledit art et science de 
Geometrie. 

It consists of 40 numbered pages (signatures a-c), with geometrical figures on wood. 

This is the oldest printed work on geometry in French. The author is not named 
on the title-page, but his name (Carolus Bovillus) appears at the head of a Latin letter 
printed on the verso of the title. The work is a translation of Bouelles’s Introduétio in 
Geometriam, in Latin, which had appeared in 1503, in a collection of mathematical works 
published by Jacques Le Fevre d’Estaples and printed by Estienne. 

This treatise of 1511 must have been the one to which Tory refers, for it was not 
until 1542, long after Champ Fleury was published, that another, slightly different, work 
of Bouelles on the same subject, was published by Colines. Still later, in 1547 and again 
in 1551, R.Chaudiere issued a small folio entitled : Geometrie prattique, composee par le noble 
Philosophe Charles de Bouelles, ©’ nouuellement par luy augmentee © grandement enrichie. The 
characterization of ‘noble Philosophe’ is in reasonable accord with the long list of his 
works to be found in Brunet and in Nicéron, as well as with the eulogistic remarks 
made by Tory. 


NOTE 25. PAGE 32. 

The accepted text of the second of these lines from Juvenal is: ‘Cum sit turpe magis 
nostris nescire Latine.” Translated, the passage would read: ‘They talk nothing but 
Greek, though it is a greater shame for our people to be ignorant of Latin.’ 


NOTE 26. PAGE 34. 

Luca Paccioli was born in Borgo San Sepolcro about the middle of the fifteenth 
century. He was one of the scholars aided by Lodovico il Moro in Milan, where 
Leonardo also was working. He published “Divina ‘Proportione in Venice in 1509, with 
a series of letters designed by Leonardo and text by himself. The purpose of the work 
was to fix mathematically the rules of proportion for all the arts. The title reads thus: 
Divina Proportione Opera a tutti glingegni perspicaci e curiosi necessaria. Ove ciascun Studioso 
di Philosophia: Prospettiva Pittura Sculptura: Architeftura: Musica: e altre Mathematice: 
suavissima: sottile: e admirabile dottrina consequira: e delettarassi: co varie questione de secre- 
tissima scientia. M. Antonio Capella eruditiss. recensente. 4. Paganius Paganinus Char- 
atteribus Elegantissimis accuratissimo imprimebar. There are copies in the Harvard Library, 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,and the Morgan Library. There is a long and important 
article on Paccioli, Dürer, and Tory in Repertorium fir KunStwissenschaft, vol. 1v, 1881. 


202 NOTES 


NOTE 27. PAGE 34. 

From a later reference to S. Fante (page 87), it appears that the book of his that 
Tory had in mind was the Thesauro di Scrittori, which must have been published after 
1514, the date of another of his works, Liber elementorum literarum, which, according to 
Brunet, was the basis of the Thesauro.'I have been unable to get a glimpse of this book 
[the Thesauro]’ says M. Bernard in his life of Tory, ‘but I have seen the Theoria et 
prattica . . . de modo scribendi fabricandique omnes litterarum (quarto, Venice, December 
1, 1524). It is divided into four books, with engravings similar to those in Champ Fleury’ 
Similar, that is to say, to the engravings of numerous alphabets at the end of Champ 
Fleury. In his descriptions of the different styles of French Gothic letters on page 174, and 
of the various other alphabets which he groups under the general title, ‘Lettres Adjoux- 
tees’ (Additional Letters), on page 179, Tory refers again and again to the Thesauro and 
to Fante’s drawings of the letters. 

The two works of Ludovico degli Arrighi, surnamed Vicentino (of Vicenza),—La 
Operina di Ludovico V icentino,da imparare di scrivere littera Cancellarescha (Rome, 1522), and 
Il modo de temporare le Penne, con le varie Sorti de littere, ordinate par Ludovico Vicentino, in 
Roma nel anno MDxx111,—have become well known of late years, and were reproduced in 
facsimile in 1926, by Frederic Warde, with introduction by Stanley Morison. 


NOTE 28. PAGE 34. 

As was said in the first of these notes, Diirer’s ‘book on Perspective,’ here under dis- 
cussion, is that which was published in 1525 under the title, Underweysung der Messung, 
etc., and which is sometimes called the ‘Art of Measurement.’ Certain portions of the 
book, including the drawings of the letters, the text translated by R. T. Nichol, were 
printed by the Grolier Club in 1917, under the title, Of the Just Shaping of Letters. 


NOTE 29. PAGE 36. 

Of Simon Haye-Neuve, called also Simon du Mans, we read in C. Bauchal’s Nouveau 
Diétionnaire des Architettes Français (Paris, 1887) that he was ‘architect, painter, and 
draughtsman, born at Château-Gontier in 1450. On his return from Italy, whither he 
had gone to study architecture, he was appointed curé of Saint-Paterne, near Douilles 
(Sarthe), which, however, did not prevent him from making plans and drawings for 
many monuments in Le Mans. In 1508, he was chosen by the Chapter of the Cathedral 
to oversee the construction of the new shrine of Sainte Scolastique. Between 1510 and 
1518 he built the chapel of the bishop’s palace (now destroyed) for Philippe of 
Luxembourg. He lived in the Abbey of Saint-Vincent in the suburbs of Le Mans, from 
1506 until his death on July 11, 1546’—ninety-six years old! 

‘He is believed to have been the architect of the Hôtel de Vignolles.’ (Here the 
author quotes the passage of Champ Fleury to which this note is appended.) ‘On the back 
of the map of Le Maine [province], etched by Du Cerceau, he is called ‘‘a great archi- 
tect.””’ See Bodin; Chardon; Lottin and Lassus; De Montaiglon, in a sketch of Jean 
Pélerin; Lacroix du Maine. 

Tory refers again to him on page 1o1. The eulogistic terms in which he speaks of 
him led M. Renouvier (Des Types, etc., p. 166) to think that very probably Tory 
learned the art of designing letters from Hayeneuve. M. Bernard, on the other hand, 
opines that this cannot be, because Tory speaks of the ‘great virtues and goodly quali- 
ties’ that he has heard ascribed to him. But this seems hardly conclusive evidence. 


NOTE 30. PAGE 37. 
The works attributed to Lucian number 82 (including three collections of 71 shorter 


NOTES 203 


dialogues), of which some 20 are either falsely or uncertainly so attributed. His‘Dia- 
logues of the Gods’ and “Dialogues of the Dead’ gave renewed life to that sort of compo- 
sition. Of what is perhaps one of the most beautifully written and most amusing works 
of antiquity, his True History, he himself said that it contained but one true statement, 
namely, that it contained nothing but lies. It is a satirical sketch of a journey to the sun 
and moon, in which the interest never flags. 


NOTE 31. PAGE 38. 

Martianus Mineus Felix Capella, of Carthage, lived in the late fifth century. His 
chief work is Satyra de Nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii, in nine books, from which all of 
Tory’s quotations are taken. In 11, 118, the Muses are arranged by him in the order 
of their singing, as in the drawing at the top of page 38 of this book. In1,27, however, 
he arranges them in a different order. 


NOTE 32. PAGE 38. 

Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, in the Fabula de Novem Muses (book 1, 15, of the larger 
work), arranges the Muses in this order: Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Thalia, Polymnia, 
Erato, Terpsicore, Urania, Calliope. 


NOTE 33. PAGE 46. 

‘Minerva—Qua dicitur a minuendis nervis.’ This suggested derivation of the name 
is as wholly Tory’s own as most of the inventions for which he has looked in vain in 
the works of Latin and Greek and French writers. The N.E.D. has this to say of the 
etymology of this word: ‘Latin, Minerva, earlier Menerva:—pre-Latin, Menes-rva (cf. 
Sanskrit, manasvin, ‘‘full of mind or sense,’’ Manasvini, name of the mother of the 
moon) formed on menes-=Sanskrit manas, mind, Greek yevoc, courage, fury, from 
root men-.’ 


NOTE 34. PAGE 57. 

Cicero gives a good deal of space in the first book of the “De Officiis to a discussion 
of this quality, but he mentions the Greek word only in the 27th chapter. The latest 
translator of the treatise (Professor Miller, for the Loeb Classical Library) translates 


it ‘propriety.’ 


NOTE 35. PAGE 61. 

‘Liquids, because they liquefy when placed after mutes in the same syllable.’— 
‘It [L] melteth in the sounding and is therefore called a Liquid, the tongue striking 
the roof of the palate gently.’—Ben Jonson, English Grammar. 


NOTE 36. PAGE 61. 

Font position. ‘Position: especially in Greek and Latin Prosody, the situation of a 
short vowel before two consonants or their equivalent . . . making the syllable 
metrically long.’—N.E.D. 


NOTE 37. PAGE 66. 

The passage from Homer is taken from the Iliad, vit, 17-27. It is the same passage 
referred to above, pages 63 and 64. There is a copy of Valla’s Latin translation in the 
Harvard Library. 


NOTE 38. PAGE 7o. 
There is certainly ingenuity in Tory’s way of turning to his own purpose the fact 


204 NOTES 


that the Sibyl’s address to Æneas fills just 23 lines. A translation of the whole passage 
will show how far Virgil’s words justify his interpretation of them: 

‘Thou Trojan son of Anchises, easy is the descent to Avernus; night and day lies 
open the portal of dark Dis. But to retrace thy steps, and to emerge into the breath of 
the open air, this is the task, this the labor. Some few whom gracious Jupiter has 
loved, or whom shining merit has exalted to the skies, heaven-born, have won their 
way. Woodlands cover the whole landscape between, and the Cocytus, gliding alone 
in its dark folds, flows all about. Yet if thy heart is so set, and thy desire so great 
twice to sail the Stygian waves, and twice to see black Tartarus; and if it be thy 
pleasure to indulge in this mad emprise, hear what thou first must do: there lies hidden 
in the dense foliage of a tree, with leaves and pliant stem of gold, a bough consecrated 
to Juno of the underworld. This bough has the protection of the whole grove, and is 
encompassed by the dark shadows of the valleys. Yet one may not enter the recesses 
of the earth ere he has plucked the bough with its golden foliage. This has the fair 
Proserpina commanded to be brought to her as a gift; and when the first is plucked, 
there fails not a second, also of gold, and the bough begins to sprout with the same 
metal. So then search deep with thy eyes, and when it is duly found, pluck it with 
thy hand, for it will yield of itself gladly and easily to thy touch if the fates beckon 
thee; otherwise, no power canst thou put forth to overcome, or rend it with hard 
steel.’ 

Tory’s punctuation of the Latin text is at fault, as it so frequently is; but it is quite 
necessary to ‘abolish’ the period after sequetur in the last line but two, and to supply 
a semicolon—or at least a comma—after vocant in the penultimate line. 


NOTE 39. PAGE 74. 

‘Moly,’ or mandrake; Greek on. A fabulous herb of magic power, given by 
Mercury (whence Tory’s ‘Mercurial”) to Odysseus as a counter-charm to the charms 
of Circe. 

Black was the root, but milky-white the flower, 
Moly the name, by mortals hard to find. 
Pope’s Odyssey, x, 365. 
NOTE 4o. PAGE 78. 

Plutarch’s Symposiacs; one of the treatises usually included in the collections known 
as the. Moralia. Amyot's French title for it was ‘Propos de Table, or Table-Talk. 

At the table someone asks why Alpha is placed first in the alphabet. Protogenes 
gives the common answer of the schools, that it is so placed (x) because it is a vowel, 
(2) because it may be both long and short, (3) because its natural place is before the 
other vowels; if placed after À or uw, it cannot be pronounced, will not make one 
syllable with them, and, resenting the affront, it seeks the first place. Put Alpha first 
and the other vowels are compliant and will join it in one syllable. 

Then there is the story that Cadmus placed Alpha first because a cow is called Alpha 
by the Phoenicians, and they regard the cow as the first of essential things. Another 
reason is that Alpha is the first articulate sound made by children. 


NOTE 41. PAGE 79. 

‘Whom my friend Publius does not outshine in dress, nor even Cordus himself, the 
Alpha of cloaks.’ 

The Epigram of Ausonius referred to in the next sentence is usually numbered 
Lxxxvi in modern editions. It is addressed to a lecherous schoolmaster, Eunus, who 
likens the female organ of generation to several letters. Tory may have had before him 


NOTES 205 


an edition of Ausonius with the reading A for one of the letters concerned; but there 
is little if any authority therefor, and all editors are now agreed upon A (Delta) as the 
proper reading. 


NOTE 42. PAGE 79. 

All the quotations from Martianus Capella in this third book, giving the method 
of pronouncing the various letters, are taken from book vit, § 261, of the work cited 
in note 31 above. The section consists of 23 lines, each line having a letter at its head, 
followed by therule for pronouncing it; the letters being arranged in alphabetical order. 


NOTE 43. PAGE 79. 
‘This [goat], amidst yonder dense hazels bearing twin kids, ah! left them on the 
naked rocks.’ 


NOTE 44. PAGE 79. 

The meaning of these verses has no bearing upon Tory’s text, but they may be trans- 
lated something like this: ‘Ah, sparkling eyes, fickle and worldly, your sly glances 
afford you keen delight.’ 


NOTE 45. PAGE 98. 

The Priapeia is a collection of poems (about 80 in number) in various metres, on the 
general subject of Priapus. It was compiled from literary works and inscriptions on 
images of the god by an unknown editor, who composed the introductory epigram. 
From their style and versification it is evident that they belong to the best period of 
Latin literature. The couplet given by Tory is nowhere ascribed to Virgil. It may be 
found in No. 54 of the Priapeia in the first volume of Bachrens’s edition of the Poetae 
Latini Minores. The meaning seems to be: ‘If you join E and D, and add on top of them 
a pole, he who wants to cut D down the middle shall be painted.’ It is evident, as Tory 
says, that if he intended to explain how to make E and D, he abandoned the intention. 


NOTE 46. PAGE 99. 

Master Pierre Patelin.—Once more, as in the case of Grecismus on pages 18 and 117, 
Tory mistakes a book for a person. Maistre Pierre Pathelin was a famous play, of un- 
known authorship, which Mr. A. W. Ward, in his article on ‘Drama’ in the Encyclopadia 
‘Britannica, characterizes as ‘immortal’ and as ‘the most famous of mediæval dramas.’ 
It was certainly written before 1470. 

An English translation of the play by Richard T. Holbrook was published by 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1905. 


NOTE 47. PAGE roo. 

In the Greek phrase quoted by Priscian from Alcman, nvp Te should be printed 
thus, as two words. The entire passage of Priscian referred to here will be found on 
page 145, and an English version of Tory’s French translation on page 146. 

Concerning the book of Epitaphs of Ancient Rome mentioned at the foot of this page 
100 and on pages 117 and 118, M. Bernard says that Tory must have had in mind the 
collection published by the printer Mazochi in 1516 or 1517, entitled Epigrammata 
sive inscriptiones antiqua urbis, which is the oldest printed collection of inscriptions. 
But instead of copying from the original monuments, Mazochi had recourse to manu- 
script collections then to be found in some libraries. Consequently, the book was full 
of errors, which he tried to correct in a supplement (1523). 


206 NOTES 


NOTE 48. PAGE rot. 

The passage of Priscian which Tory presumably had in mind here is erroneously 
cited in the margin of page 107 as 1, 1, 12. The proper reference is 1, 1v, 12. But Tory 
either quoted from memory, or used some text not available to the translator. In 
Keil’s Grammatici Latini, vol. 11, page 11, the passage reads as follows: 

‘Nam si verissime velinius inspicere eas [hoc est sedecim], non plus duas additas in 
Latino inveniemus sermone: F Aeolicum digamma, quod apud antiquissimos Latin- 
orum eandem vim quam apud Aeolis habuit. . . . Eum autem prope sonum, quem 
nunc habet. . . . Postea vero in Latinis verbis placuit pro p et b, f scribi, ut ““fama,”’ 
“filius,’’ “‘facio,’’ loco autem digamma F pro consonante.’ 

‘For if we choose to examine these letters most carefully (that is, the sixteen), 
we shall find that not more than two have been added in the Latin tongue: the Aeolian 
digamma, which among the most ancient Latins had the same force as among the 
Acolians. But its own sound, which it now has. . . . Later, to be sure, f came to be 
written for p and 4, as ‘‘fama,”’ “‘filius,”’ “‘facio,’’ but I place the digamma F among the 
consonants.’ 


NOTE 49. PAGE 104. 

Probably the ‘divers pictures’ would help to elucidate the text of the ‘rebus,’ 
which seems to mean something like this: 

‘Men deem me a fool, creating foolish folly. Thus I live, thus then I am a fool. 
A fool among fools, a mongrel in captivity [entre mains] I live; the world supports me, 
for foolishly I live.’ 


NOTE 50. PAGE 105. 

The identity of this Orus (or Horus) Apollo—more generally called Horapollo— 
will probably never be established. It has been suggested that he was the son of Osiris, 
a divinity whom the Greeks in Egypt identified with their own Apollo, and that some 
mortal’s book on hieroglyphics was attributed to him. But Suidas mentions an illus- 
trious grammarian of the name, from Phænebytis in Egypt, who taught at Alexandria 
and at Constantinople, in the time of Theodosius (fourth century). And still another 
native of Egypt, of that name, lived under the Emperor Zeno (fifth century). General 
opinion favors the former as the author of Hieroglyphica, which does not, however, 
exist in its original form. At some unascertained date there appeared a translation 
into Greek, by one Philip, of whom nothing further is known. Conjecture has lost 
itself as to this Philip’s date, which has been variously fixed from the fifth to the fif- 
teenth century. 

At all events, Hieroglyphica is the only ancient work on the subject of hieroglyphics 
that has come down to us. The widely differing opinions of scholars concerning the 
authority to be given to the work are of little moment here, as Tory’s references to it 
are merely collateral, so to speak. As he has quoted from a Latin version of it, we may 
say that it must have been the translation of one Trebatius (or Trebatus), published in 
1515. (The Latin word Vrewm represents the Greek Oupañov.) A translation into Eng- 
lish, by Alexander T. Cory (with Greek and English in parallel columns), was issued at 
London, with the Pickering imprint, in 1840. 

Tory’s own version, which he mentions again on page 183, has never come to light. 


NOTE 51. PAGE 106. 
The Pot Cassé. M. Bernard (pages 70-75) gives ten versions of this mark, with an 
indication of one book in which each of them is to be found. The one on the title-page 


INLD LS 207 


of this volume is number 4 in his series. In one form or another the mark was used 
by other booksellers after him, notably by O. Mallard. See Bernard, pages 60 ff. 


NOTE 52. PAGE tog. 

Aside from the curious slip of calling IHESUS an ‘abbreviation’ of IESUS, Tory’s 
elucidation of this point seems rather confused. ‘IHS . . . a ms abbreviation of the 
word IH[ZOY]S, Jesus. . . . In middle English the usual form was ihu=Jesu; less 
frequently, ths, ihc, or thus. These abbreviations were in later times often erroneously 
expanded as Ihesum, Ihesu.’—N.E.D. 

The same authority goes on to correct an almost ineradicable common miscon- 
ception: ‘The Romanized form of the abbreviation would be IES,’ but from the entire 
or partial retention of the Greek form in Latin mss, as IHC or IHS, and subsequent 
forgetfulness of its origin, it has often been looked upon as a Latin abbreviation or 
contraction, and explained by some as standing for Iesus Hominum Salvator, ‘Jesus, 
Saviour of Men’; by others as In Hoc Signo (vinces), ‘In this sign thou shalt conquer’ ; 
ot In Hac Salus, ‘In this (Cross) is Salvation.’ 


NOTE 53. PAGE 111. 

Catullus, Ode txxx1v.—The true text requires 4rrius for Arius in lines 2 and 11, 
sic for si in line 5. The translator is indebted to Mr. Arthur M. Young for the follow- 
ing version: 

‘Arrius was accustomed to say ‘“‘hadvantageous’’ whenever he meant ‘‘advantage- 
ous,’’ and “‘hintrigues’’ for ‘‘intrigues’’; and he hoped that he had enunciated marvel- 
lously well when he had shouted “‘hintrigues’’ as loud as he could. That, I fancy, is 
how his mother and his mother’s brother and father and his grandmother had said it. 
When he was sent to Syria, everybody’s ears were given a respite. They used to hear 
these same words spoken lightly and softly, and thereafter such words had nothing 
to fear. But suddenly came the terrible news that after Arrius got there, the Ionian 
waves were no longer Ionian, but ‘‘Hionian.’’’ 


NOTE 54. PAGE 111. 

Jovianus Pontanus (1426-1503 ) was in the service of Alfonso V of Aragon (Alfonso I 
of Sicily and Naples) as tutor to his sons, military secretary, and chancellor. He 
wrote several didactic prose works, also a summary, in hexameters (Urania), of the 
astronomical science of his age. The passage of “De —Aspiratione cited here is on page 7 
of the Aldine edition of 1519. 


NOTE 55. PAGE 114. 

M. Bernard thinks that Jean Perréal (dit Jehan de Paris) was Tory’s instructor in 
the art of design. On page 38 of his Geofroy Tory he reproduces the figures on this page 
114 as the only work which can be definitively attributed to Perréal, and from its 
manifest similarity to many of the figures printed by Tory in the Second Book of 
Champ Fleury, he deduces that these too were drawn by Perréal. ‘Probably,’ he says, 
‘Perréal died while the book was on the press, and Tory, who had not thought of 
naming him, while he lived, as the author of the earlier drawings, lost no time in 
doing it after his death by publishing the last work of his friend that remained in 
his hands, although it did not fit his subject perfectly—as it were a flower laid in the 
dead man’s grave.’ 

A great number of pictures and miniatures have been attributed to Perréal, but 
there is no actual proof of his having been the author of any of them. The date of 


208 NOTES 


his death is not known, unless M. Bernard's reason for placing it about 1528, when 
Champ Fleury was on the press, be accepted, taken in conjunction with the further fact 
that Tory’s is the last recorded reference to him until the publication of a biography 
by M. E. M. Bancel in 1885. 

Bernard says that he once owned an autograph letter of Perréal, written in 1511 to 
Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, offering his services in connection with the res- 
toration of the Church of Brou, to which she replied shortly after: ‘Since Jehan le Maire 
left us, we desire no other superintendent of our buildings at Brou than yourself.’ 


NOTE 56. PAGE 140. 

Martial, book x, epigram 87. Here, as elsewhere in Martial, ‘Sigma’ means a 
semi-circular couch for reclining at meals, the meaning being derived from the letter 
C; ‘lunata,’ crescent-shaped, simply emphasizes the meaning of ‘Sigma.’ 


NOTE 57. PAGE 145. 

In transcribing this long and rather important passage from Priscian it seemed best 
to supply in brackets two words, necessary to the sense, which Tory omitted (evi- 
dently by accident, as he translated them); also to ‘arrange’ the punctuation to some 
extent, in order both to conform to the original and to explain the translation. 

The verse from Horace (Epodes, xiii, 2) near the end of the quotation is the second 
and last verse of the Archilochian strophe so frequently used in the Epodes, of which 

the first verse is an ordinary dactylic hexameter and the second a so-called ‘iambel- 
egus,’ consisting of two parts, an iambic dimeter, and the first half of an heroic pen- 
tameter. It is scanned thus: 
N i|vésqtte | dedü|cunt 15}vem || ntinc mare | nunc sÿL ü|z. 
It is a rather famous example of the metrical peculiarity to which Tory refers. 


NOTE 58. PAGE 150. 

‘Thou, sire, art the finder of things, thou dost offer us ancestral precepts, and from 
thy pages, renowned sire, even as bees taste of all things in the flowering meadows 
[so do we feed upon all thy golden words].’ 


NOTE 59. PAGE 151. 

The reference to Xenophon i in the quotation from Cicero is to the Memorabilia, u, 
1, 21 ff. ‘Heracles, arriving at manhood, retired to a solitary place, to deliberate con- 
cerning his future. Two women of more than ordinary stature came to him; one, 
Virtue, frank, amiable, and with an air of conscious dignity; the other, Sensual 
Pleasure, comely, but voluptuous, and conscious of her physical charms. Accosting 
Heracles, she promises him, if he will but follow her road, a life of pleasure and ease 
and gratification of his every whim. Virtue promises him on her road glory in con- 
quest, though attended by labors and trouble.’ 


NOTE 60. PAGE 151. 
These lines are mistakenly attributed by Tory to Virgil. They are the work of one 
Maximinius, and may be found in Baehrens’s ‘Poetae Latini Minores, 1v, 148. 


NOTE 61. PAGE 158. 

Constantine Lascaris was a Greek scholar of the 15th century, who was settled in 
Italy when, in 1476, he published his Greek grammar, said to have been the first book 
printed in Greek. 


At the Printing House of William Edwin Rudge 
Mount Vernon, New York 
October, 1927 


R LIBRARY 


il i i i l LITE 


